Discussions of potential producers eventually led to Ethan Johns, who had recently handled Ryan Adams’ Lost Highway debut, Gold. “Ethan drove out here to meet us, from L.A., and spent like a week with us,” Merritt says, recalling the producer’s August visit to North Carolina that included attending a show the band played at the Local 506 nightclub in Chapel Hill. “I told Ethan, ‘You need to hear my band,’ and he was like, ‘I hear you; all right, I’ll come to North Carolina.’
“That was just what this record was about; that was the place it was coming from,” she continues. “Nobody knows what these songs are about better than these guys. And nobody knows what they mean to me like these guys….One of the things I am most proud of on this record is that, emotionally, it’s really coming from the right place. And I don’t think I could’ve achieved that in the hands of strangers.”
These are, indeed, very personal songs — none more so than “Sunday”, which comes across as a center of gravity on Bramble Rose. Merritt first unveiled it with a rare turn at the piano during a solo show in Seattle in February 2001, opening a short West Coast stint for Ryan Adams. A broken guitar string provided a fortuitous stroke of fate for bringing the tune into her set that night. It’s not a complicated song, more a rambling string of observations that collectively create a portrait of a troubled but strong-willed Southern woman, delivered with a dramatic flair and an emotional transparency.
“I’ve always felt really strongly about that song,” she admits. “If I had to make some broad, sweeping statements about what this record was about — it’s about me. And it’s about being from North Carolina. And everything from wanting to get outta here, to thinking it’s the greatest place on earth.”
Also deeply personal, although in a somewhat less obvious way, is the album’s closing track, “When I Cross Over”. Its chorus chant, “I’ll send you something when I cross over,” suggests a gospel tune — not necessarily of any denomination, but definitely relating to the afterlife.
It turns out that wasn’t the kind of “crossing over” Merritt was writing about — at least not initially.
“I spent a little bit of time moving around by myself, wanting to get away from all the constructs that seem to bind you, when you can’t break through, when you feel like you don’t have a hold on who you are,” she says. “It seemed like I’d go somewhere and feel like I was starting a clean slate, and about a month later I’d feel all fettered again. And one time I went to Canada by myself, and I was kind of thinking about that feeling, and thinking about when I cross over — when I was writing it, it was about going to Canada.
“So I was thinking about that, and I just realized that you can pretty much spend your whole life looking for that feeling. And you just eventually have to make it, wherever you are. It doesn’t have anything to do with what town you’re in.
“And then I had a friend who died, and his wife asked me to play at his memorial service. I just didn’t know how I was gonna do it. This was somebody I had known since I was 5 years old, and I just didn’t know how I would make it through. But something came over me that afternoon. My friend came in my head, and he was like, ‘You’ve got to go in there, you’re gonna be fine.’ And I knew that he was sending me something. So now, when I sing that song, I think of him.”
Unlike “Sunday”, which is so singular in its perspective that it’s hard to imagine anyone but Merritt singing it, “When I Cross Over” ultimately seems universal enough in its sentiment that one could imagine it might be covered by another artist someday. That’s also true of two other tunes on Bramble Rose, “Supposed To Make You Happy” and “Are You Still In Love With Me”. Both revolve around very simple lyrical and musical structures, with subtle turns providing just a nudge of pathos or passion at precisely the right moment.
“I am a big fan of economy of words,” she acknowledges. “I think what those songs do have in common is a reoccurring line that can mean more than one thing, that can bring more than one feeling. ‘Are you still in love with me’ can be asking about a million different questions with that one question. But I think also, they’re really unguarded, simple songs; really honest, you know. None of the constructs of trying to tell a story. That’s what I like about them.”
One song that doesn’t necessarily tell a story, but clearly is more complicated and involved in its vision, is “Bird Of Freedom”, which could be construed as Merritt’s first foray into socially or politically conscious commentary in her songwriting. Although it’s far from what folks may well assume when they hear its opening line: “Where were you when the plane went down…”
The song was inspired, well before September 11, by a film a friend made about his father, who was killed in Vietnam. “I think John got to the point where he said, I really need to do something, I really need to find out who my father was. So, he made a really moving, beautiful film where he found the soldiers that his father fought with. And he and his mother actually went back to Vietnam together, to the place where he was killed.”
The song didn’t wind up being used in the film, but it also took on a meaning that was less specifically tied to the movie’s theme, to the point where Merritt started playing it in the band’s sets last summer.
