Tift Merritt at the Jazz Cafe
Jazz Cafe, 7 May 2009
Out of the new wave of alternative country girl singers that have arrived over the past decade (Neko, Kathleen Edwards, Allison Moorer), I always considered Tift Merritt to be hugely likeable and talented but the lesser of the four. Her albums, to me, recall Ryan Adams during his most pop country moments, warm and breezy like a summer day but without the edge that have helped the others make the transition to something a little more special. That said I was curious to see what she had to offer live and I was pleasantly surprised.
When she first emerged onto the small Jazz Cafe stage (a venue that is little more than a bar with a balcony where people eating can also watch the show) she's a tiny little thing, wearing a short black jacket, jeans, a big smile and high-heeled boots that make her look like she has Barbie feet. Her equipment is just an acoustic guitar, various harmonicas and the venue's grand piano, but it turns out this is all she needs, because that voice, oh that voice, is something truly special to behold. Rich, smooth and warm, with echoes at times of both Emmylou and Joni, it sounds particularly pure with the minimalist backing.
Beginning on a sweeter, more melancholy note with the longing-filled ballad Another Country, the title track to her most recent album, she builds the mood with the lovely, lilting Hopes Too High to more rocking numbers such as My Heart Is Free, Broken (one of the best songs from Another Country), Morning Is My Destination and the bluesy I Know What I'm Looking For Now, before retreating to behind the piano for a soulful Good Hearted Man, which shows off her voice beautifully.
She also treats us to a few new songs, one about her hatred of sports bars, she tells us, called Bar With A TV On and another hopeful, pretty song, which I don't catch the name of, about the recent US election (not surprisingly she was a Barack Obama supporter). But one of the highlights comes when she unplugs her guitar and steps away from the microphone to do an entirely acoustic version of Something To Me, her voice managing to fill the small bar and float up to the rafters: it's a magical moment that shows she really has the goods to compete with alt-country peers.
There's surprisingly little from her previous albums Tambourine and Bramble Rose in the set, aside from the aforementioned Good Hearted Man, but she does offer up a few older treats including the old school country feel of Virginia, No One Can Warn You, the driving Stray Paper and the heartbreaker Supposed To Make You Happy. For the encore though she tries out a couple of covers: a winning, piano-played version of the old soul classic Dark End Of The Street, which she tells us was the first ever song she learned how to play on the piano (pretty cool song to start with, I have to say) and ambitiously takes on Somewhere Over The Rainbow, a song that is so easy to ruin, and somehow manages to pull it off, echoing Eva Cassidy's almost definitive haunting version of the song.
Sometimes all it takes is one show to change your opinion of an artist and Tift managed to do that almost with just one song. I can't wait to see her again.
When she first emerged onto the small Jazz Cafe stage (a venue that is little more than a bar with a balcony where people eating can also watch the show) she's a tiny little thing, wearing a short black jacket, jeans, a big smile and high-heeled boots that make her look like she has Barbie feet. Her equipment is just an acoustic guitar, various harmonicas and the venue's grand piano, but it turns out this is all she needs, because that voice, oh that voice, is something truly special to behold. Rich, smooth and warm, with echoes at times of both Emmylou and Joni, it sounds particularly pure with the minimalist backing.
Sometimes all it takes is one show to change your opinion of an artist and Tift managed to do that almost with just one song. I can't wait to see her again.
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