Tift Merritt just finished playing at WFPK's Live Lunch and the show at Ear x-tacy TODAY is STILL ON despite the bad weather. Her live lunch show was very engaging and if you can brave the weather, this will be your only other chance to see her in Louisville. The show starts at 6pm [...]
I have been charged with dereliction of duties with regard to my blogging, and my penance is your reward, or punishment depending on whether you no likee. Prevailing wisdom would seem to suggest that getting shit-canned would free up time for my little hobby, and indeed it has. I have just been too damn lazy. I will try to do better. There are a few records on the horizon that I am mildly excited to tepid about including a Ministry covers record (see track below), a new Breeders record, the new NIN Ghosts I-II-III-IV, a new Isobel [...]

Guestpost! Ken on Tift Merritt . French Wishes DO come true!! Texas native Tift Merritt has been one of my favorite singers for years – she has that perfect combination of talents (songwriting, arranging, performing) that allow her to produce music that can literally take your breath away. She has an incredibly ability to express the emotion of a song's lyrics in such a way that you, the listener, experience it with her, be it fragility or strength, defiance or meekness, joy or heartbreak. And then there's her voice…wondrously, achingly beautiful. [...]

There are a couple of albums out on this Leap Year week that you should certainly get your hands on, which otherwise is relatively minor in regards to the amount of new releases. I've mentioned Beach House's sophomore LP Devotion many, many times over the past few months, so of course, I can't recommend this one enough. It never really touches on the same emotions as the first album, but the songwriting and music is definitely stronger and more focused this time around. And as evidence from a few tracks like "You [...]
Ghostland Observatory - now on tour (and selling out!) photo by Gregory A. Perez Maybe it's the Leap Year on Friday that's scared off the labels from releasing such a bevy of new albums this week as they did last week . But just because it's a tad slower this time around, that doesn't mean you can take the week off. As you can see from Largehearted Boy's list , there are plenty of heavy jams and slow burns to choose from. Lookin' to rock out? Pick up the latest [...]

Even though there are some great releases this week, my pick for this week exceeds them in every way possible. Ghostland Observatory's third studio album Robotique Majestique , is by far my favorite release so far this year. I have been a fan of their's for a little while now, but this album just makes me want to quit school and follow them around on tour. Every song is masterfully crafted and seduces your ear to beg for more. Once you get through the end of the album, your adrenaline is pumping so hard that [...]

Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal music downloads and full album streams from the week's CD releases . MP3 downloads and full album streams from CDs released this week: Beach House: Devotion full album stream "Gila" [mp3] [...]

So, this marks the 100th official SquirrelFood.net Friday Mixtape I've posted. Nearly two years of posting a mixtape every Friday, with at least 1,000 tracks (I didn't count, just extimating that figure). Last week was post number 500, this week, Mixtape number 100. Another week, another milestone. This mix seems to me a bit on the mellow side, with acts like Adam Merrin, Paddy Casey, and Tift Merritt. A new track from The Feeling's new album, Join With Us , which I has gone soft-rock-radio after their debut, but give it a try anyway. Picking up the [...]
Tift Merritt is not going to blow up in the blog world (despite recent profiles by Chromewaves and To the Dogs or Whoever ). She lacks the angst of a Kathleen Edwards, the road-weary, cigarrete and whiskey voice of a Lucinda Williams, or the sexual allure of a Cat Power. But her new record, Another Country , may well be the culmination and the grand achievement after years of singing, songwriting and performing live. The songs I've heard have that intangible quality where they are not easily classifiable as alt-country, Americana [...]

The title of Tift Merritt's new album Another Country can be taken literally as its source of inspiration, as it was written while the North Carolinan moved to France to recharge and find new inspiration and generally take a break from the music industry following the successes of her first two albums, 2002's country strummer Bramble Rose and 2004's more rock and soul-inflected follow-up Tambourine . While neither record was the sort you'd file under "groundbreaking", they were full of solid songwriting made especially potent when delivered in [...]
The Onion has posted a fantastic "humor" column about Christmas. When I was a kid, our local newspaper (and where I once proudly served on the staff) published a humor column written by a guy who thought he was hilarious. I kind felt sorry for our local writer—he tried, you know? He probably worked really hard on those Saturday columns. But his writing was about as funny as a child's funeral.

Greetings from California! It's been a busy, fantastic weekend. I flew into SFO early Saturday morning, descending through the pea-soup fog and thinking, as always, that the plane was going to land on the Bay, but at the last minute the runway always appears. Thankfully. When I got the rental car, I had some time to kill before I had to be in San Jose, so I took a quick jaunt through the City and saw the Golden Gate (just to say hello) and some other gorgeous landmarks. The best thing about Saturday was that KFOG radio was playing an [...]
Who says no concerts ever come to Ohio?! Oh yeah, that was me. Okay, so apparently it is making up for itself next month. I am very excited to find out that not only is the university having Nickel Creek here on September 27th, with Tift Merritt opening, but the week before The Mountain Goats will be playing The Union Bar with Christine Fellows opening! It will be like an alt-country and alt-folk infusion and I cannot wait. I am so excited about The Mountain Goats, especially in such a [...]