Tift Merritt Comes Home

When playing at Carolina Theatre in Greensboro a couple of months ago, Feist introduced a song with the statement “You guys should be proud that one of the best American female singer-songwriters is from your state and is in the crowd tonight.  I just want to say hello to Tift Merritt.” The crowd went wild and Leslie Feist bounced around the stage a bit more singing another of her indy-pop ballads.  Feist may owe only a small amount of her own style to Tift, but many other singers across the country owe her a bit more.  Tift was born in Texas, but got her musical start in the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area and will return Tuesday (Nov. 12th) for a free show at 7pm on the small stage at Schoolkids Records on Hillsborough Street.  She thens heads back to New York for a couple of shows and returns to Raleigh for a New Years Eve performance.  I’m sure Schoolkids will be packed, so get there early and pick up a copy of her new Live on Austin City Limits (a show that was broadcast on television as a split between her and another NC folkstar Ryan Adams) cd before catching some tunes between the cd aisles.