Country music is having a big moment these days, if anything it can plausibly be claimed this is the biggest era since the 1950s where the genre has become a major presence in the mainstream. And I am all for it, even though the real big hitters of our time seem to have a pop sheen so pronounced and polished that the actual country element of the music is reduced to some tassels, cowboy boots, and a brief push on the fiddle. But things getting watered down to suit mass consumption tastes are nothing new in the music world and I always rationalise, at least it opens the door a bit for the real talent to get heard; and when it comes to the real deal, Tift Merritt is exactly that. I first encountered her at a festival around 2005, by which time she was already a couple of albums into what became a distinguished recording career. She burst onto the stage, a fireball of energy and smiles, grabbing the audience by the ears and dousing them with her original country songs that immediately proved this most long running and storied of American music styles had a lot of mileage left in it yet. Tift rocked the festival crowd that day with the simple trick of just being very, very good at performing instantly loveable songs. And yes, Merritt was obviously serious about her art. I began collecting her music that day and these records remain some of the regular go to titles in my collection. If your life is hitting the heights so ecstatically you want to shake it like a tambourine, Tift can step up with the goods just as, at the other end of the scale, should you want to spend some time travelling alone, this songwriter has the writing depth to help us get by.  

Despite all this though, even with the most naturally gifted artists there are still periods where real life takes over and creative conditions shift into another realm, and so this new release ‘Sugar’ is actually a return to recording after a near ten-year gap. Merritt has continued to write in her radiant country‑soul vernacular, but she has also been living the wider life of becoming a mother, serving as a Practitioner‑in‑Residence at Duke University, helping reimagine The Gables as a collaborative arts space in Raleigh, advocating fiercely for musicians’ rights through the Artists Rights Alliance, and simply doing the slow, essential work of being a human being guided by her own instincts. Those years have opened new dimensions in her storytelling, refining her sense of what songs can hold and what they can offer. “Before I made this record, I was looking at the world and thinking, ‘I don’t know what to do except try to put some love out there.’ And for me, singing is the most honest, immediate way to offer love,” Merritt says. “My work has always been about trying to understand what it means to be human at that point in time. But that response has to make room for the personal and the joyful too, we can’t face everything with doom and gloom alone.”

That is a statement which cuts to the core of what makes Tift Merritt’s music so essential, she is honest in her reflections and reactions to real life but never loses sight of her natural desire to lift the spirits through music too. Take as a good example this new album’s ‘Someone To Watch The Band With Me,’ a rousing track in which Tift rages against the easy attainability of everything apart from basic human connection; as she strips all the modern ephemera and gets direct to the point, that basic desire scorches the surface as the chorus hits. Recording ‘Sugar’ in Nashville’s Gold Pacific Studios and putting the emphasis on capturing in the moment verve was exactly the right approach for music that thrives on feeling. ‘Look What Love Just Did’ is another stand out, soulful horns and a heavy sunset key steering the singer’s determination not to lose her wonder at the magic love can summon in a flash. There is a sense of urgency in these beliefs too, something that spills over in bright opener ‘Finest Feelings’ although the flipside of new love is addressed too, devastatingly so as Tift turns her insides out trying to release the hurt felt in ‘Generous.’ The confusion of the modern world appears in songs like ‘Mad Mad World’ and ‘Last Ditch Ultimatum’ (in which Jesus shuts heaven’s doors in frustration at the human race) but by the time we close on ‘Philosopher’s Song’ Tift is searching, with hope and purpose, for “any kindness I can find” again. Should there be any music fans out there unfamiliar with the magic of Merritt, ripe for a discovery that they can believe in today, then this woman’s work is a wonderful place to settle. Tift Merritt returning with songs as alive and vital as this is the kind of sugar we should all delight in.

Danny Neill

You can order a copy of the album here: https://amzn.to/3SrXeHJ