Tift Merritt Show

Saturday night I spent at the Carolina Theatre in Durham to see Tift Merritt in concert. I went with my friend Julie, who had never heard of Tift before. The show was really good, she sang songs from her recently released album "Another Country" (of which most was actually written in another country) as well as some older songs. She has such a wonderfully unique voice, and really gets into performing as she jams on her guitar or rocks away on her keyboard.

Tift got her start in the triangle area, and it was clear that she had a lot of old friends/family and fans in the theatre - they let her know it with several standing ovations and loud on-going cheers.

She was also interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation this past Thursday.

They were filming some hd video of the show, and I came across this post mentioning an upcoming documentary about Tift Merritt and her band.

Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek) opened the show. Wow. She's good.

Lori McKenna Live!

5 or 6 years ago, I was cleaning my apartment with the tv on in the background. I wasn't watching the tv, but a song started playing on the show that was on, and the song (not the show) immediately caught my attention. The singing voice was so striking. Extremely expressive and painful, I ended up watching the rest of the tv show just so I could see the credits and find out what angel had this extraordinary singing voice. It was Lori McKenna.

I searched her out on the Internet and found out that she played only in the New England area, but I found some other songs of hers through her website and WUMB (public radio in Boston) recordings. All amazing. Fast forward to 2007 and Faith Hill records three of Lori's songs on her CD Fireflies (including the title track), Lori McKenna opens for Faith and Tim on tour, and Tim McGraw produces Lori's album Unglamorous. Pretty impressive! I always knew I had a golden ear and could pick out a star from a mile away (now I know its much further than a mile...how many miles from NC to Mass?).

So last night I got to see Lori live, at her show at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. The show was just Lori, Mark Erelli (backup vocals, mandolin, and guitar), and Russell (electric guitar) in a small theatre with a max seating of something like 300. I sat less than 10 feet from the stage at a table and drank a local brew while listening. Very nice! :)

If you want to check it out, I took a short grainy video of one of her songs: Written Permission. She apparently categorizes her music as country these days, since she signed with Warner Bros:

Technorati Tags: Live Music, Lori McKenna, Music