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Mitch Kokai
Posts:1283

08/06/2010 8:57 AM
DailyCamera.com talks to Tift in advance of the Aug. 13 performance: When Tift Merritt was recording her fourth studio album, "See You on the Moon," she wanted "to make a record that was natural and organic with no superfluous nonsense," Merritt said, calling from North Carolina. The CD's playlist is focused on her heavy-on-the-heartstrings lyrics and a country soul voice reminiscent of the immortal Dusty Springfield. "The writing for this album came pretty easily. I went away by myself and got absorbed in it," she said. Merritt also did some re-imagining when she took on the soft rock staple from the early '70s, "Danny's Song," recorded by Loggins and Messina and made famous by Anne Murray. Merritt strips the tune of its cheery innocence and adds a hint of melancholy and worry from the young mother's viewpoint. "It was an absolutely unplanned thing that we did that song. We were having this conversation about singers in the 1970s and their hair and Anne Murray came up," Merritt said. She and her band started singing "Danny's Song" and realized that the story resonated with them. "It touched us and after we sang it, it wasn't our parents' song any more. It was ours," Merritt said.

Mitch Kokai
Posts:1283

08/17/2010 2:44 AM
A Denver Post reviewer gives Tift a nice (if way-too-short) mention in a review of the full festival. Tift Merritt sang with passion on her set, particularly on “Mixtape,” an ode to the lost art of making mix tapes for friends and lovers.

Dave from N.J.
Posts:65

08/17/2010 10:26 AM
That review of Tift's performance at the Folksfest was much too short. She did a great job and it was so nice having the full band. It was a big changeup from a lot of the other performers that just sang alone. We sat surrounded by a lot of people who had never heard Tift sing but were very impressed with her perfornance, and then were happy to meet her afterwards and buy one of the cds. Sometimes you read these reviews and you wonder what concert was the reviewer at. The Swell Season was as usual awesome and the reviewer although he gave them a favorable review characterized their genre as Folk/punk. I don't know here he gets that at. They are Folky with Irish thrown in, but Glen Hansard is not punk and can mesmorize the crowd as he did there.

Mitch Kokai
Posts:1283

08/17/2010 4:14 PM
Here are some YouTube clips from the performance: "Engine To Turn" "Mixtape" "Live Till You Die" "Nineteen"

Dave from N.J.
Posts:65

08/17/2010 8:19 PM
Good videos Mitch. I'd say that Loring had a seat closer to the stage than I did at the Folksfest.

PJDAustin
Posts:178

08/17/2010 9:32 PM
Dave, How did you like the festival, accomodations etc ? Did you camp ? Would you go again ? How big was the crowd ? Thanks. Peter

"It ain't a good gig w/o a little red sawdust in the air"

Dave from N.J.
Posts:65

08/18/2010 5:50 PM
My Wife and I both loved the festival. We did not camp but instead rented a house 7 miles away in Longmont. We then drove each day to the Festival parking lot which was $5.00 for a three day ticket. From there you could ride the free shuttle or walk which was a little less than a mile. We opted to walk as we figured we would need some exercise to counter all the sitting,eating and drinking. The festival was for supposedly sold out . That was somewhat misleading because. in the early parts of the day there were times where tarps covered every inch of the fields but a lot of them were unoccupied as people played in the river, went back to their campground etc. I would say from 5pm until closing each night it was pretty packed. I don't know the size of the crowds but I would guess a few thousand each day. Food and drink lines were bearable but the ladies restroom line was pretty long a lot of times. That was the first multi day festival I attended so I don't know how the other ones were. The only thing I didn't like was the way people got into the festival. The gates opened each morning at 10:00 am with the first performer going on around 1130. Before the festival started you could go to the booth at the entrance and trade in your ticket for a colored wristband which was for 1-3 days depending on your ticket. Each night at Midnight (Starting Midnight friday) if you wanted you could line up at the entrance , and sometime between midnight and three am they would randomly give out around 700 numbers and these people would be the first ones to get in at 10 am the following morning. I personally didn't want to lineup at midnight and stay there for 2-3 hours on the chance that we would get a low number so we just got in line around 8:30 am Fri. morning and took our chances. We still got pretty good seats. Sat we lucked out as friend s we made there got a low number and made room for us on their tarp in about the tenth row from the stage. For Sunday people started up at 1045 pm when the Sat. show concluded for the Midnight-3 am drawing. I think that is ridiculous to have to do that if one sat at the festival from 10 am to 1045 that night. I would definitely go again depending on who was playing next year. Besides the bigger acts, in the smaller Wildflower Pavilion they had some lesser known acts performing that we thought were just as good if not better than some of the headliners. We stayed out there for a week and went bicycling,horseback riding, hot air ballooning etc. It was fun

Dave from N.J.
Posts:65

08/20/2010 6:39 AM
Tift and the Band at The FolksFest

PJDAustin
Posts:178

08/20/2010 12:53 PM
Dave, Thanks for the festival summary. Zeke is working hard in the photo and T is plugged in ; I got a few guesses as to what they are playing, but it would just be easier to ask. Peter

"It ain't a good gig w/o a little red sawdust in the air"

Dave from N.J.
Posts:65

08/20/2010 2:11 PM
Peter I have no idea what they were playing in the picture, but judging by Tift's body language, and Zeke's clenched teeth, I'm guessing it wasn't a ballad. Sure it was good though!!

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