A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
In 2015, Tift Merritt took time away from the road to write for her newest album — and what she came up with is possibly her most personal work to date.
After her 2013 solo release, “Traveling Companion," Merritt played guitar in Andrew Bird’s band. But following a few unexpected life changes and a move back to her home state of North Carolina, she found the inspiration for a new album, “Stitch Of The World.” Sam Beam of Iron and Wine sang on the album and also produced it.
I bumped into him at the airport actually and I said, "Sam, I've got all of these songs and I don't know if they're any good." He said, "Send them to me! Send them to me!" He took the time to listen to them and he called me back and he said, "I think these songs are really good."
On top of working with Beam, Merritt explained what made recording her most recent effort so memorable.
I was six months pregnant when we recorded this record. Playing music pregnant was a really wonderful experience because you have this mystical audience of one that's sharing the hum with you.