Today’s Random Weekend track is from Tift Merritt’s sophomore album, 2004’s Tambourine. This song is a cover of a rare cut by James Carr, a 60s soul singer best known for his recording of ‘The Dark End of the Street.’
This album was my first exposure to Merritt, who went on to become one of my favorite artists. I got Tambourine a few weeks before seeing her open for Elvis Costello, and the combination of this great album and her live show made me a fan for life.
My final song selection from Sophia is another of the Gen Z women she follows. Maude Latour is a 20-year-old Columbia student who was born in Sweden and raised in London before moving to New York before high school.
Latour’s parents are both political journalists and she is very politically active herself, saying she hopes to be the first president to perform music at her own inauguration.
We the Kings is a band from, of all places, Bradenton, Florida. This is a Sophia find that I probably should have encountered earlier.
The band’s self-titled debut came out in 2007 and they have released seven more albums since then. Today’s song, their biggest hit, sold more than a quarter million copies back in 2007. It, and they, totally missed my radar.
Brooklyn-based siblings Ben and Katie Marshall formed Paperwhite in 2013, with Katie handling songwriting and lead vocals while Ben produces, plays instruments and provides backing vocals.
The duo has released two EPs and a couple of singles, for a grand total of 13 songs, all with the same “dream pop” sound.
BENEE is another of Sophia’s Gen Z women artists. Stella Rose Bennett is a 20-year-old New Zealander who debuted a few years ago and has had decent commercial success in her home country.
Like so many artists in her age group, BENEE found international success when one of her songs blew up on TikTok. That was ‘Supalonely,’ a track that prompted one YouTube commenter to make the smart observation that “Billie Eilish + Dua Lipa = BENEE.”
Meet Me In Montauk 