Continuing my look at 2004, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#2 – Tift Merritt – Tambourine

Gateway albums — your first exposure to an artist — usually take on special meaning. It’s hard to shake the warm feelings you have toward a record for introducing you to a new favorite.

Tambourine was my introduction to the brilliant and sadly unheralded singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. And while it isn’t my top-ranked album of hers, it is a fantastic recording that lands just shy of my top spot for 2004.

Merritt has the distinction of being the only artist I have ever met in person more than once. The first time was when she opened for Elvis Costello in support of this album. I bought Tambourine in advance of that concert so I would know the material, and immediately knew I’d discovered someone special. Kudos to Costello for his taste in opening acts.

This record was nominated for Best Country Album, which feels like a weird way to categorize a collection that owes as much to Muscle Shoals and Dusty Springfield as it does to Nashville. Merritt lost the award to Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose, an album I wrote about earlier this week. No shame in losing a Grammy to Loretta Lynn.

Tambourine remains Merritt’s heaviest album, as her future work leaned more into acoustic Joni Mitchell territory. I love the brash, arena-friendly rock of this record as much as the quiet contemplation of her later work. It’s all wonderful.