It has been said many times that it takes more than talent to become successful in the music business.  While Tift Merritt certainly has talent— as a songwriter and performer— she also has a high level of independence and is clearly focused on the elements in her life that make her feel vital. Whether writing songs, short stories, poetry or the next great American novel, Merritt at 33, is beginning to be aware of a reoccurring theme in her life— the need to escape from the pressures and expectations of others, in order to return too herself and rejuvenate her creative spirit.

 For Merritt, this process started in Wilmington many years ago.  Born in Houston, Texas but growing up in the Triangle area, young Merritt aspired to be a writer— moving too Wilmington in the early nineties to work on her craft.  “I was nineteen, and I was a really a hot headed kid,” she explained in our conversation.  “I wanted to be an artist, and I didn’t think that anybody could teach me how to do that. I just wanted to be alone, and be by the water, and prove to myself that I could be a writer.” While waitressing, Merritt became involved in the emerging Wilmington music scene— performing at local venues like Water Street Restaurant (see insert). “It’s kind of interesting to think back of myself as a nineteen year old - going off by myself with this sort of mission to come up with material to see if I was really a writer,” she explains with a laugh.  “It was some kind of crazy fire within.”

 While many people from those times have come and gone, Water Street proprietor, Harper Peterson, remembers Tift’s crazy fire.  “She did impress me with her Dylan and Joni Mitchell renditions at such an early age.  I remember asking her, and she answered that her parents had influenced her in many ways, music being one.” In fact, her father, a closet musician, taught her guitar basics— singing harmony and always encouraged her to perform.

Yet, the writer in Merritt questioned getting on stage, wondering if it was to vain or frivolous.  “I was playing bars, by myself, and waiting tables,” she recalls. “I certainly didn’t know how to handle drunk guys. I hadn’t really found my confidence as a writer either, so I decided that the smartest thing for me to do would be to retreat a little bit. I realized I was stuck, so I went to UNC and studied creative writing. I didn’t play out when I left Wilmington for a few years, I just wrote.”

Writing award winning short stories, but keeping her songs to herself, Merritt credits one of her instructors— Bland Simpson, from the Red Clay Ramblers— for encouraging her and helping her with her songwriting. Soon after, she began playing and networking in the rich musical community of the Triangle area—recording a country flavored duet record with the Two Dollar Pistols in 1999. Later, in 2000, she won the Chris Austin songwriting contest at MerleFest.  Shortly after, Merritt secured a recording contract with Lost Highway— the root music division of the major label Universal.

As Peterson recalls from her times spent in Wilmington, she “Was young, fresh, enthusiastic and obviously on an express train getting ready to leave the station.”  Since those days, Merritt’s life has been an endless circle of recordings and appearances. Releasing two albums for Lost Highway— including the 2004 Grammy nominated Tambourine— she is constantly touring, and at times has struggled with its challenges.  “It really takes the sap out of you,” she confided. “You’re kind of giving yourself to people you don’t know really well, and then you return to your life and it isn’t there anymore.” But she has a secret.  “I spent a lot of time at Carolina Beach writing Tambourine and also during breaks, while I on tour I would come home to the beach quite a bit. To get down to the tides and the sand and I was able to play piano in the middle of the night with my windows open. You know those are the simple things that really mean something.”

In May 2005, after completing the Tambourine tour, Merritt was exhausted and discouraged by a year on the road, so she decided to take short holiday too Paris.  Like her trips to the beach, she became rejuvenated. It refreshed her personally, as well as creatively and as a result, she unexpectedly began to write new songs. The new tunes were mature, intimate and full of introspection on her life.  “I think there is something about the process of writing for me that’s about getting down to the essentials,” she admits.  “And sometimes that means me running by myself away to a foreign city.” Yet, when Merritt returned to the States, her label, Lost Highway, didn’t share her renewed spirit and they dropped her. “I look at being dropped as a blessing now,” she confesses. She soon she was able to sign with Fantasy Records and started to assemble her Pairs songs for a new record.

Another Country released in February 2008 reflects a side of Tift Merritt that is more personal than her past recordings.  “I wanted this record to be one person talking to another person. I did not want it to be any sort of show business kind of thing. I wanted it to be a sonic extended of the hand, nothing in the face, nothing trying too hard.” And the critics agree.

“It is measurably more intimate than Merritt’s previous work,” said PopMatters. “Another Country is nothing short of stunning in its candor, simplicity and grace.”

 Perhaps what makes this record different than her others is that everybody involve believed in her new songs from the beginning. Another Country is full of the essentials in life that are so important to Merritt. “The musicians that are on the record have been with me a long time,” she explains. “Tambourine was more a George Drakoulis (Jayhawks, The Black Crowes) production and Mike Campbell was the guitar player who was incredible. But this is more a personal affair and a best case scenario. We had our musical family and then producer Drakoulis and Charlie Sexton— who is a mind blowing guitarist— trying to up our game.  I think it’s a really nice combination. It kept us in comfort and reality and then pushed us forward a little bit.”

From her early days performing at Water Street, to Another Country, Tift Merritt’s life has had its share of memorable moments. But since those days as aspiring writer in Wilmington, one thing hasn’t changed. “I actually feel that that impulse to go off and be alone to write has really never left me.”  Whether she is in Carolina Beach or Paris, France, Merritt understands that these are the places where she can get back to the essentials in her life.  “There’s something simple and direct that runs through this record because of that,” Merritt remarked. My guess is that it runs through Tift Merritt as well.