Merritt's father taught her guitar chords and Percy Sledge songs. She began her professional career in 1998 with her band The Carbines playing small clubs. In her early twenties, though Tift had gigged by herself, she decided she was not very good at music and better suited for writing short stories. She and her dog Lucy started school at UNC to study creative writing. There, she met Zeke Hutchins, whose band had just taken a hiatus and who had decided to become a school teacher. With his encouragement and a big box of LPs from the 70's that they both liked, they started a band. Zeke set drums up in the kitchen of Tift's farmhouse on the outskirts of town, and they practiced songs at her red piano. The Carbines played Chapel Hill haunts like the Cave, the Cat's Cradle, and the front porch of the General Store in Bynum, NC. Tift also made a guest appearance on the Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt EP.
In 2000, Tift won Merlefest's Chris Austin Songwriting contest, and with the help of Ryan Adams, found herself with a manager and a recording contract with Lost Highway records. The band headed to LA to record her first release, Bramble Rose, in 2002, produced by Ethan Johns. The record landed on Time Magazine's and New Yorker's top ten lists and was called the best debut of the year in any genre by the Associated Press. Tambourine followed in 2004. Produced by George Drakoulias, featuring Mike Campbell of the Hearbreakers on guitar, Tambourine was a soul-rock throw down, Grammy-nominated for Country Album of the Year, even though it was really not a country album. It was also nominated for three Americana Music Awards. The tour opened for Elvis Costello, recorded Austin City Limits, releasing the performance as a live DVD, and made Home Is Loud, a document of the tour's homecoming concert in Raleigh, NC. As the tour was winding down, Tift ran away to Paris looking for her mojo and, without intending to, started writing songs that would become Another Country. Another Country was released on Fantasy Records in 2008, again with George Drakoulias and her longtime band at the helm. Buckingham Solo, recorded in England, is an intimate concert behind Another Country, released on Fantasy in April 2009. Also in 2009, Tift had her first art exhibit, Other Countries, bringing the journals and pictures behind Another Country to light.
Tift also produces The Spark for KRTS Marfa, Texas Public Radio. The Spark explores the real lives and processes of the people behind great works of art. Guests have included writer Nick Hornby, artist Kiki Smith, songstress and Merge co-founder Mac MCCaughan. Emmylou Harris, when asked about Tift, said, “I first heard Tift Merritt some years ago during a writer's night at a small club in Nashville. She stood out like a diamond in a coal patch, and everyone there knew she carried a promise of great things to come.”
In 2009, Tift married longtime collaborator Zeke Hutchins. They lived in a small Greenwich Village apartment in NYC, and later divorced.
Traveling Alone, her fifth studio album, was recorded in Brooklyn and featuring guest spots from Marc Ribot, Andrew Bird, and others, was released in the fall of 2012.
Her sixth studio Stitch of the World was released in 2017. According to the review in Pop Matters, "The stories surrounding Stitch of the World, Tift Merritt's most recent album, make up their narrative, with divorce, relocation, and childbirth at the center of the tale... But Merritt's gift for the record has been to write a series of songs that sound personal without relying on anything autobiographical... the songs are individual, a capturing of Merritt's vision that's unguarded and inviting without being limited."
http://www.tiftmerritt.com/
Keep You Happy
Tift Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The moon's a tear drop, see slowly as it falls away
Miles running down a face,
Everything's bound to change,
It's bound to change
Day breaks of tenderness,
So hold me here like this,
Keep you happy
A feeling has me and tells me it will never stay
Your heart beats miles now, I feel them as they fly away
Close gets so far away,
Close gets so far
Day breaks of loneliness
I'd weather all of this
If I could find a place where I'd
Keep you happy
Why do we pretend there is something to hold onto?
See how my world fell in, I was trying to hold you, I was just trying to hold you
Night is a gypsy who tells me he will never stay
Miles are like heart beats, I know them as they fly away
See how they fly away,
See how they fly
In Tift Merritt's song, Keep You Happy, the first two stanzas depict the longing and change that the singer is experiencing. The sky and moon symbolize distance and tears, respectively, which suggests a sense of sadness and melancholy. The metaphor of "miles running down a face" illustrates a sense of motion and tears falling down, as if the singer is crying. This mirrors the theme of change that is present throughout the song, as the singer is experiencing a shift in their emotions and their relationship. The second stanza introduces tenderness, which is contrasting to the sadness depicted before. The singer longs to be held to keep their partner happy, signifying the lengths they are willing to go to hold onto what they have.
The chorus repeats the phrase "keep you happy," which can be interpreted as the singer's main goal. They are willing to weather loneliness and hold onto their partner, even if it means pretending that there is something to hold onto. The third stanza introduces the idea of night being a gypsy, signifying the uncertainty and temporariness of life. The heartbeats and miles flying away symbolize the passage of time and the inability to hold onto moments forever. The song ends with the repetition of "see how they fly away," emphasizing the fleeting nature of life.
Overall, Keep You Happy is about the struggle of holding onto something that is inevitably temporary. The singer feels the passage of time and longs to hold onto their partner and keep them happy, despite the challenges they face.
Line by Line Meaning
The sky is turning and longing for something far away
The sky is changing colors and it seems to be yearning for something distant and unreachable.
The moon's a tear drop, see slowly as it falls away
The moon looks like a teardrop as it disappears far in the horizon.
Miles running down a face,
Tears are falling down someone's face.
Everything's bound to change,
The only constant thing in life is change.
It's bound to change
Change is inevitable.
Day breaks of tenderness,
The beginning of the day is gentle and affectionate.
So hold me here like this,
Embrace me tightly like this.
So still and quiet as if it might
Be quiet and motionless, as if it could...
Keep you happy
I am doing this to make you happy and content.
A feeling has me and tells me it will never stay
An emotion is present and informs me that it won't last.
Your heart beats miles now, I feel them as they fly away
Your heart is beating fast and it feels like it's moving away from me.
Close gets so far away,
Even if we are physically close, we can still feel distant and remote.
Close gets so far
Closeness can become far away.
Day breaks of loneliness
The beginning of the day is lonely and sad.
I'd weather all of this
I would endure all of this.
If I could find a place where I'd
If only I could discover a place where I could...
Keep you happy
I am doing this to make you happy and content.
Why do we pretend there is something to hold onto?
Why do we pretend that there is something we can cling to?
See how my world fell in, I was trying to hold you, I was just trying to hold you
My world fell apart when I realized that I was trying to cling onto you, even though it was futile.
Night is a gypsy who tells me he will never stay
Night feels like a nomad who announces that he won't linger.
Miles are like heart beats, I know them as they fly away
Miles feel like heartbeats, and I can sense them as they drift away.
See how they fly away,
Observe how they fly away.
See how they fly
Notice how they fly away.
Lyrics © WORDS & MUSIC A DIV OF BIG DEAL MUSIC LLC
Written by: TIFT MERRITT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
mysterymystery101
I love this song!It's so soft and beautiful and can relive anyone from their worries.<3
mmagliaro
What hope there is for music when somebody still writes songs like this. If you don't have the CD (Another Country) BUY IT. It's a masterpiece. Bravo, Tift. Bravo.
bagera jolt
I absolutely love this song. This is one of my favorites on that album..
Stephen Bufferd
This might be my all time favorite song, especially the chorus "Daybreaks of tenderness... Lost and won numerous loves in my life and somehow this song should be my anthem!
Bruce7
Sweet. Peace in our Lord.
Wienie
so good. I know her because of watching this series"Hart of Dixie".
Kitkat
What will i find, to keep me happy? ♥
1951nightwish
@Brucev7 ?????????????????????????????
Bruce7
@1951nightwish Hi