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/
Stray Paper
Tift Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A picture of Houston in a creased-up mess,
Just to remind me that it all went wrong,
Just to beat me up, just to turn me on.
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Burning in my hands.
Ashes and silver worn in to your hands,
"I got to see you" on a bar napkin,
Gas station quarters, I got to see you again.
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Burning in my hands.
Somewhere there's a letter that I never sent,
It used to read pretty, now it's empty as
That night in the headlights with the blankets pressed.
Was it something to you baby, or was it always just
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Burning in my hands.
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Burning in my hands,
Burning in my hands,
Burning in my hands.
In Tift Merritt's song Stray Paper, the singer holds onto physical relics of a past love, represented by the "stray paper" that burns in their hands. The postcard with an old address and a picture of Houston in disarray serves as a reminder of where it all went wrong, as if the singer needs a physical reminder of their pain. Yet, this pain is also a source of arousal or excitement, as the postcard "just to beat me up, just to turn me on."
The second verse delves deeper into the singer's relationship with their former lover, hinting at a messy and complicated past. The cigarettes and classified ads in the glove box suggest an aimless and perhaps unhealthy lifestyle. The line "I got to see you" scrawled on a bar napkin speaks to a desperation to reconnect with the past. Even something as mundane as gas station quarters becomes valuable if it means the possibility of seeing the former lover again.
The final verse introduces the idea of an unsent letter, once beautiful but now empty. The reference to "that night in the headlights with the blankets pressed" implies a moment of intimacy, but it's unclear if this was something meaningful to the former partner or if it was always something the singer read into. Despite the ambiguity, the stray paper remains a constant reminder and source of pain and desire for the singer.
Overall, Stray Paper is a poignant exploration of what it means to hold onto the physical artifacts of a past love, even when they bring up complicated and painful memories.
Interesting facts:
Line by Line Meaning
I got a postcard with an old address,
I received a postcard that had my old address on it.
A picture of Houston in a creased-up mess,
The postcard had a picture of Houston that was messy and wrinkled.
Just to remind me that it all went wrong,
The postcard served as a reminder that things didn't go as planned in their past.
Just to beat me up, just to turn me on.
The reminder of their past mistakes both hurt and excited them.
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Repeated mention of the postcard and other papers.
Burning in my hands.
The papers are causing emotional turmoil for the person.
Cigarettes in the glove box with the classified ads,
There are cigarettes and classified ads stored in the car's glove box.
Ashes and silver worn in to your hands,
The person has silver jewelry that is worn and has ashes on their hands from smoking.
"I got to see you" on a bar napkin,
Someone wrote "I got to see you" on a napkin at a bar.
Gas station quarters, I got to see you again.
The person needs gas station coins to see someone again.
Somewhere there's a letter that I never sent,
There's a letter that they wrote but never sent to someone.
It used to read pretty, now it's empty as
The letter used to be filled with nice things but now it's empty.
That night in the headlights with the blankets pressed.
The night was spent in a car with headlights on, huddled under blankets.
Was it something to you baby, or was it always just
The person is questioning if their experience that night meant something to the other person or if it was insignificant.
Burning in my hands.
The person is still emotionally affected by their past and it's causing them pain.
Stray paper, stray paper, stray paper,
Repeated mention of the papers causing distress.
Burning in my hands,
The distress is causing a physical sensation in their hands.
Burning in my hands,
The distress is still causing physical discomfort for the person.
Burning in my hands.
The person is unable to shake off the emotional pain and it's still taking a toll on them.
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Written by: TIFT MERRITT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@BirdDogey1
A performer that didn't get the attention she deserves. A great talent.
@mixbydanny
This woman is so magical .......very talented... she's not following anybody..She's just doing good music from her heart....peace & love
@paulelliott3220
All of Tift's albums are worth getting and she's a very talented writer and performer. Great voice too.
Can't hope wrong with that talent - should be huge
Natural on stage and great post
@photonotavailable7936
paul elliott Should be huge. Definitely.
@IRISHscot17
tift is such a rockstar! she is amazing live. woot!!go tift!!!!
@owaowa9338
she's my friend's cousin!!!!!
@tom7471
Utterly wonderful, completely underrated!
@robertaxel
Happy Birthday, Tift!
@rickxlcr
As beautiful a voice as I've ever heard
@carvingtheblock886
Beautiful. Completely beautiful.