Tift Merritt at The Borderline

Tift Merritt

Simon Lynge

The Borderline, 4 July 2011

It's funny, I think I had forgotten just how petite and lovely Tift Merritt is because when she walks on stage I'm surprised at how small and beautiful she is. Wearing tights, black shorts and a sailor-style top, she seems over-dressed for the warm weather but she tells us our London heatwave would be considered mild in her hometown of North Carolina. Tonight she seems more excited than the last the last time I saw her live, filled with a nervous energy that somehow enhances her performance.
One thing though, I must admit I'm a little disappointed that she doesn't play many from her new (and perhaps best) album See You On The Moon but I guess for older fans she plays plenty of old favourites and treats us to several new songs including one she had never played in front of an audience before. It one point she tells us she has strayed so far off her setlist she's decided to abandon it completely and calls for requests. That kind of spontaneity is rare and refreshing.

For some crazy reason it's taken me a long time to really appreciate Tift, seeing her live a couple of years back certainly helped, for one thing it made me realise just how great her voice is. Lately though I've been admiring her songwriting, she's definitely as good as the likes of Ryan Adams even though she's not recognised very often as his equal. Tonight also reveals to me just what a great performer she is, moving in time with her guitar and making full use of the stage between verses, while her voice and expression uncovers someone who is feeling every lyric. There are great renditions of should-be classics like Morning Is My Destination, Stray Paper and Good Hearted Man (the latter performed on the piano, Tift standing and tapping her red-booted foot throughout) but the best moment of the night comes with an audience request, the moving Laid A Highway, with lyrics, mood and emotion worthy of Springsteen at his most tender. There's also a great moment when she takes out her own Googled lyrics, fulfilling a request from the other night when she was supporting Gregg Allman at the Barbican, maybe one of her best songs, Trouble Over Me. She says Allman told her she had a sailor's handshake, "which I took to mean I'm alright" she laughs.

At the end of the show she reveals that next year will be the anniversary of her first ever London show, played right on this very stage. In some ways it's a nice moment but in others you wonder just why Tift hasn't made it to bigger venues, she's certainly beautiful and talented enough. Still, given how good her last album was maybe it could still happen for her and the last song, Virginia, No One Can Warn You, certainly sounds like the performance of a star.

As for the support act, after seeing him open for Emmylou Harris last month I was pleased to see Simon Lynge in a more intimate venue this time, although his stories of growing up in Greenland were the same. Still he was warm and funny and his songs are catchy and enjoyable. Plus his cover of Otis Redding's Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay is a joy, surprising given how many times that song has been covered, yet he manages to make it fresh and fun. I certainly wouldn't mind catching Lynge again.