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."
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My Heart Is Free
Tift Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Morning hit the barrel of a rifle going off
Then the daylight wrapped around me,
Then I heard the sergeant scream,
Then all my reservations fell gently at my feet
[Chorus]
Now my heart is free
I was sure there was a reason to take that side and fight,
But when I saw the trembling hands that put that shot in flight,
I saw the hands of Jesus, saw the shores at Normandy,
Saw a hundred thousand weary lost and homesick boys like me
[Chorus]
The courage asked of my heart has traveled far beyond those lines
Seems it's always for a few men that so many of us die
You don't remember my name or the girl that I made proud,
And whatever drew me from her arms is nothing to me now
[Chorus]
The lyrics to Tift Merritt's song "My Heart is Free" are about a soldier's internal conflict surrounding his beliefs and experiences during his time in combat. The first verse describes the chaos and violence that the soldier witnessed firsthand, highlighting the moment he realized the full weight of what he was experiencing. The chorus becomes the crux of the song, where the soldier exclaims that his heart is free and that he no longer carries the burdens that weighed him down before.
The second verse is more contemplative, where the soldier reflects on the reasoning behind his fighting and questions whether it was justifiable. Seeing the "hands of Jesus" and "a hundred thousand weary lost and homesick boys like me" forces the soldier to come to terms with the reality of war and its toll on human life. The chorus repeats, affirming the soldier's newfound liberation from the stress and guilt that he carried before.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, the first thing I remember is the last thing that I saw,
The first memory that is most vivid in my mind is the last image I beheld.
Morning hit the barrel of a rifle going off
I heard the sound of a rifle going off, accompanied by the sun's rays hitting the barrel in the morning.
Then the daylight wrapped around me,
I was enveloped by the light of dawn.
Then I heard the sergeant scream,
The sergeant shouted out loudly.
Then all my reservations fell gently at my feet
All my doubts and concerns disappeared quietly.
Now my heart is free
My heart is unburdened.
My heart is free, and all the things that hold a man no longer carry me
I am no longer held by the things that used to burden me, and now I am free.
I was sure there was a reason to take that side and fight,
I had believed that there was a compelling reason to choose a side and engage in fighting.
But when I saw the trembling hands that put that shot in flight,
However, when I witnessed the shaking hands that fired the fatal shot,
I saw the hands of Jesus, saw the shores at Normandy,
I then envisaged the hands of Jesus and envisioned the shores of Normandy.
Saw a hundred thousand weary lost and homesick boys like me
I saw numerous young boys who were just as fatigued and homesick as I was.
The courage asked of my heart has traveled far beyond those lines
The strength that my heart was required to possess extended beyond the boundaries of war.
Seems it's always for a few men that so many of us die
It appears that we sacrifice so many lives for the benefit of just a few men.
You don't remember my name or the girl that I made proud,
You do not recall my name nor the girl I made proud.
And whatever drew me from her arms is nothing to me now
Whatever led me away from her embrace is now without significance to me.
Now my heart is free
My heart is no longer burdened.
My heart is free, and all the things that hold a man no longer carry me
I am now free from the things that used to weigh me down.
Lyrics © WORDS & MUSIC A DIV OF BIG DEAL MUSIC LLC
Written by: TIFT MERRITT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind