Follow along here Sunday night for all the thrills, chills and spills of the Grammy Awards. The telecast starts at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, but I should be snarking and blogging on the pre-broadcast portion before then -- at which point we should know whether or not a good chunk of my predictions came to pass. Y'all come.

6:45 p.m. -- We're still more than an hour from the telecast portion, and the news isn't good for most of our North Carolina nominees. But it's very good for Brevard's Steep Canyon Rangers, who take home bluegrass album.

Alas, the Triangle's Carolina Chocolate Drops didn't win folk album. I feared they might lose out to the classical-folk supergroup of Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, and that is indeed what happened. Yo-Yo Ma, et al's "The Goat Rodeo Sessions" also won best-engineered non-classical album, beating out Jacksonville native Ryan Adams' "Ashes & Fire.

Also falling short are Concord's Avett Brothers for Americana album, won by Bonnie Raitt (not a surprise that Avetts didn't win, although I figured Mumford & Sons were going to take that one); and Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton, who didn't win either of his two R&B categories.

Still to come, Granite Falls native Eric Church, nominated in two country categories; and all the big main-category hoo-ha. Stick around, or come on back...

7:14 -- They may not have won their category, but it’s an absolute lead-pipe cinch the Carolina Chocolate Drops were the best-looking bunch in the house. Here’s a picture that co-manager Tim Duffy (who is second from the right) posted to his Facebook page a few hours ago…

7:41 -- While we’re waiting for the telecast to get going, all the fashionistas can take a look at this photo gallery of red-carpet arrivals.

7:57 -- Eric Church is 0-for-1, losing out to Carrie Underwood for country song. Telecast portion is mere minutes away.

8:00 -- And here we go. Guess it's not a surprise that Church lost out to Underwood, given that she's one of the announced performers.

8:02 -- What...the hell...is this? Methinks Taylor Swift has been reading "Alice in Wonderland" again. WhatEVer...I am still baffled by the dude in the butane-powered flame-throwing bicycle-type contraption.

8:05 -- Sorry, Taylor, that was underwhelming even if emcee LL Cool J calls it "spectacular." And now he's making a somewhat awkward speech about inspiration and such; shout-outs to Beyonce, Underwood, Justin Timberlake, Adele, Gotye. I'm expecting a point...soon...

8:08 -- LL, nobody cares that you won two Grammys. And now he's introducing Elton John and Ed Sheeran.

8:10 -- Elton's voice has always been the epitome of youthful yearning, but it has just not aged well. Sheeran quite nice, however, even if he's playing what appears to be a toy guitar; and Elton still plays a mighty fine piano.

8:15 -- And here's a commercial with Swift flogging her "Red" album, which she'd like you to know is "available at Target." It ain't the Super Bowl, but the multi-platform marketing is in full effect.

8:18 -- STOP already with the sucking up to Taylor Swift, LL! Pitbull and J-Lo are the first presenters, for pop solo performance...NOT feeling J-Lo's dress. And it goes to...Adele -- who apparently did not win enough last year. And if J-Lo's dress is unflattering, dang, Adele's upholstered dress makes her look like a couch. Charming short-and-sweet acceptance speech, however.

8:22 -- Neil Patrick Harris out to introduce Fun.

8:25 -- Young, earnest angst never goes out of style. Carry on and rumble, young men, rumble. But I've always wondered how they can dump water on people around microphones and electric guitars without shocking someone to death.

8:30 -- Gee, the omnipresent Taylor Swift is on "Letterman" this week, according to this here promo. What are the odds?!

8:32 -- Bonnie Raitt and John Mayer (I'm sorry, Bonnie, I really am -- he's not fit to tune your guitar) are out to introduce Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley.

8:35 -- This is kind of awful. They're both off-key, and the band doesn't sound as if it has ever played together before. Their voices also aren't a good match, not at all. To bottom it off, they both look terrible. And Lambert's pink microphone is disturbingly reminiscent of...well...Never mind.

8:38 -- As Arlo Guthrie once put it, "That was horrible." The bar has been set pretty low.

8:39 -- Dick Clark tribute with footage of teenage LL on "American Bandstand." Nice period piece. And it's on to Miguel and Wiz Khalifa...

8:40 -- Much better, mostly because Miguel can actual, you know, SING.

8:42 -- Country solo performance being presented, here is Eric Church's last shot...

8:43 -- ...but he is denied by Carrie Underwood, yet again. Guess he's only crossed over so far after all. And that closes the book on our North Carolina nominees, who only took home one Grammy (Steep Canyon Rangers for bluegrass album) out of seven nominations. Just wait 'til next year!

8:44 -- Underwood closes by thanking God; what are the odds?!

8:50 -- LL, it's no cooler to suck up to Carrie Underwood than to Taylor Swift. Come on, dude, seriously. And now Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are out; dang has Faith Hill lost about 50 pounds? Looking quite severe.

8:51 -- And song of the year goes to..."We Are Young," by the aforementioned Fun. Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" denied.

8:53 -- Fun. looks like a huge bunch of robonerds, and they don't know when to shut up. Finally, they're done. And here's Johnny Depp, introducing Mumford & Sons. A year ago, the Avett Brothers were up there with Mumford, backing up Bob Dylan.

8:55 -- Is it just me, or have almost all the performers been off-key? Like they can't hear themselves, maybe? This is an almost unrecognizable version of Mumford's "I Will Wait," not unlike what Dylan has been doing to his own songs for years. Maybe they were comparing notes last year?

9:04 -- Beyonce and Ellen DeGeneres out to do a painfully awkward introduction of Justin Timberlake (seriously, I thought Beyonce was gonna reach over and smack her when she did that weird up-close stare).

9:05 -- Say what you will about JT, dude is a star. Pretty cool touch to go monochromatic on this, too.

9:06 -- Ooh, nice, Beyonce's husband stands up from his seat in the crowd and walks up rapping. This song ain't much, but Timberlake is great to watch.

9:08 -- Okay, this second song is beyond redemption even by Timberlake. It's not even a song so much as a succession of vamps and flourishes.

9:11 -- And it has gone on waaaaaaaaaay too long. Now here is Kelly Rowland (fresh off the Destiny's Child Super Bowl reunion) with Nas to present urban contemporary album. Please don't let the loathesome Chris Brown win...

9:13 -- ...And he doesn't. It goes to Frank Ocean instead. Good.

9:18 -- What does it mean that Timberlake's Bud Light commercial is better than the second song he just played?

9:19 -- Back to the show, Dan Auerbach announced as non-classical producer of the year; no surprise there. And now it's time for rock performance, which goes to...Auerbach's band the Black Keys -- no surprise there, either. They're on their way to a big night.

9:22 -- LL introducing Alicia Keys and Maroon 5. Help. If we just let Adam Levine take his shirt off, can he not sing? Pretty please?

9:23 -- Dammit, he's singing. I have never understood the appeal of this bunch, who seem like the epitome of faceless dreck. And Levine has always seemed like a poor man's Dave Matthews (who I hate, too, while we're at it).

9:25 -- Wow, Keys on drums as she sings. That's...unexpected. But the more she sings, the less Levine will. It's all good.

9:26 -- Keith Urban and someone from "The Big Bang Theory," in a very odd combination. More awkward small talk as they introduce pop vocal album nominees. Please don't let it go to Maroon 5...

9:28 -- ...and it doesn't. The winner is Kelly Clarkson, a good choice. She has to hug everyone on her way up to the stage. And she is just adorably enthusiastic -- shouting out Miguel and saying they've "gotta sing together." Cool. I dig her.

9:34 -- 96 Rock's "Million Dollar Commercial" is truly embarrassing.

9:36 -- Rihanna out to sing; comes out of the gate sounding lots better than most of tonight's other performers. Wish they hadn't shown Chris Brown applauding afterward, however.

9:40 -- Carly Rae Jepsen and Ne-Yo out to present rap-sung collaboration. Seems like Jay-Z's a shoe-in for this one, since he's got two nominations...

9:41 -- ... and he does, sharing it with Kanye West. Frank Ocean does most of the talking, and Jay-Z closes. Where's Kanye? Hmm...

9:43 -- Lightnin' Hopkins, Glenn Gould, the Temptations, Carole King, Ravi Shankar and Charlie Haden are the lifetime-achievement award winners, which they spend less than 10 seconds on. Classy...

9:48 -- Based on this Pepsi commercial, Tate Stevens is "The X-Factor"'s idea of a country star. They are clearly not to be trusted. Yee-ha...

9:49 -- Time for Black Keys' performance! With Dr. John and Preservation Hall Jazz Band!! Suddenly, we have signs of life -- this is majorly kick-ass.

9:51 -- And here's your Grammy moment, right here. Pile-driving beat, excellent song and that brass pumping away. Awesome! Love Dr. John's headdress, too.

9:53 -- Kelly Clarkson back up to sing. She can, too, you know. Nice Patti Page tribute with "Brand New Tennessee Waltz"; segued into Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" -- really, really good; if a tad oversold on the outro.

9:57 -- Now Clarkson gets to present country album; which goes to...

9:58 -- Zac Brown Band. Well, okay. Better then than Miranda Lambert, who was ghastly earlier in the evening...Aw, now Brown is choking up while thanking everyone.

10:05 -- Here we go with the Bob Marley tribute, featuring Sting, Ziggy Marley, Bruno Mars...

10:06 -- Mars starts off. I thought this was supposed to have something to do with reggae? I'm confused. Mars and his band are aces, though, so at least there's that.

10:08 -- And here's Sting; almost inaudible. Hmm...

10:09 -- But they've segued into the old Police hit "Walking on the Moon." You can hear him now. Not bad. Not great, either.

10:10 -- Which brings us to the younger Marley, with Rihanna. Better.

10:11 -- Damian Marley out to rap. Better still.

10:18 -- Lumineers out for an unplugged hootenanny-type thing on "Ho Hey." Nice enough, but I find myself wishing the Avett Brothers had gotten this performance slot instead. Oh well...

10:21 -- Jack White up next. Now, kids, watch: HERE is a rock star and this is how you do it.

10:22 -- I love that his entire backup band appears to be women. They're good, too, really good.

10:23 -- Okay, now he's also got a band of really noisy dudes; doing "Freedom at 21," a snarling blues-rock song from his album last year. Excellent!

10:26 -- Katy Perry and her dress out to present best new artist. That is, um, yeah, quite a dress; almost a special effect. And the best-new-artist curse goes to...

10:27 -- ...Fun., who you may now kiss goodbye. Maybe they'll still have a career by the time they play Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh Sept. 25.

10:35 -- Speaking of special-effects wardrobes, here's Carrie Underwood, in a dress that looks as if she probably had to be put onstage by crane, singing her winning song "Blown Away."

10:37 -- Wow, that dress is suddenly doubling as a Jumbotron IMAX screen. Will it be nominated for a technical award next year, I wonder? If nothing else, it's insuring that her singing ain't what anybody will be talking about afterward.

10:38 -- It's alive! Carrie Underwood's dress is alive!!

10:39 -- Prince out to present record of the year. Dang, wish he was playing instead of just presenting. Looks like he's wearing a blindfold. So will Black Keys' hot streak continue?...

10:41 -- Nope, Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." Hoo boy...

10:42 -- Dude, say thank you and go away (although, to his credit, at least he appears to be in awe of Prince).

10:49 -- And we're back with a Dave Brubeck tribute, by Chic Corea and Stanley Clarke. Nice to hear "Take Five" in something besides a car commercial.

10:50 -- How to make the Neil Portnow eat-your-vegetables bit about the Grammy Foundation less appealing? Put Ryan Seacrest out there, too. Yawn...

10:51 -- But bringing Justin Timberlake back out is a pretty good idea. Except he's babbling about this being the "best Grammys ever." God, I hope not.

10:53 -- Segueing into the in memorium segment. Brubeck, Andy Williams, Donna Summer, Chuck Brown, Robin Gibb, Patti Page, Earl Scruggs, Doug Dillard, Davy Jones, Dick Clark, Marva Whitney, Fontella Bass, Herb Reed, Frank Wilson, Hal David, Andy Griffith, Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Adler, Patty Andrews, Dorothy McGuire, Jenni Rivera, Kitty Wells, Doc Watson, Joe South, Ravi Shankar, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Adam Yauch, Ed Cassidy, Levon Helm and Ronnie Montrose among those we lost. Rest in peace...

10:57 -- Elton John kicks off the Levon Helm tribute with a shout-out to the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims. Zac Brown takes the first verse of "The Weight." Mumford & Sons and T-Bone Burnett among the backup band...

10:59 -- Mavis Staples rules!

11:00 -- I like Marcus Mumford, but I don't envy him having to follow Staples.

11:01 -- Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes is killin' it, too -- I saw her do this at AMA back in September and she was great then, too.

11:02 -- And to Elton. Oh, Elton, your voice...

11:03 -- But this is still my favorite performance of the night; this, Black Keys and Jack White.

11:08 -- Lengthening commercial creep as the telecast wears on. Ugh...

11:09 -- Juanes out to do a Latinized version of Elton's "Your Song." Um...I'm sorry, but...this is kinda coming off like a caricature. Not feelin' it, even the part En Espanol. Sorry.

11:11 -- Frank Ocean in a most puzzling yellow-suit-and-headband ensemble. Singing "Forrest Gump," which ain't much of a song. Presentation a little too high-concept for its own good.

11:14 -- This is stupid. And off-key. And it's gone on too long. Dude, stop runnin'.

11:15 -- Would that Adele had changed her dress. But no, she's out to present album of the year. Fingers crossed for Black Keys! And it goes to...

11:16 -- ...Mumford & Sons instead. Still, coulda been worse.

11:24 -- LL Cool J (who has changed clothes), Chuck D, Tom Morello and Travis Barker out for the big finale. Public Enemy's main man can still be The Voice of Doom. and LL ain't bad, either...

11:27 -- Aw, nice Adam "MCA" Yauch tribute here, with some Beastie Boys riffing. I'm not the only one who misses him.

11:28 -- And that's a wrap, as the credits roll. 'Night, everybody.

Once Upon a Time (8pm, ABC) - A giant is kidnapped and brought to Storybrooke, where he tries to settle an old score with David.

Grammy Awards (8pm, CBS) - LL Cool J hosts the awards show, and performances are scheduled for Mumford & Sons, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean, Fun, the Lumineers, and others. Also, Elton John and Ed Sheeran perform together. The N&O's David Menconi will be live-blogging Grammy events.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (8pm, Syfy) - The early days of William Adama (Luke Pasqualino, left) as a young and eager Academy graduate during the first Cylon War are chronicled in this prequel to the popular "Battlestar Galactica" update that originally aired on Syfy from 2003-2009. (Note: This movie was previously released as a series of shorts online.)

The Walking Dead (9pm, AMC) - Season 3 resumes with Rick (Andrew Lincoln, right) and the gang trying to rescue Darryl from a perilous situation at Woodbury. Later, concerns are raised at the prison after new guests arrive. (Reminder: A marathon of the first half of Season 3 marathon starts at 1 today.)

Downton Abbey (9pm, UNC-TV) - In tonight's two-hour episode, Robert works to organize a cricket match while things at Downton begin to get back to normal. The "Downton Abbey" Christmas episode, which marks the official end of the season, will air next Sunday. I expect rioting in the streets to follow.

Girls (9pm, HBO) - Even Hannah is surprised when she's attracted to a fortysomething doctor and his life of unspectacular stability.

Shameless (9pm, Showtime) - Carl heads to cancer camp, where the facility's activities leave a lot to be desired, while Frank goes on babysitting duty and and Lip and Mandy rescue her half sister from foster care.

Enlightened (9:30pm, HBO) - Amy, Tyler and Dougie try to befriend Eileen, the CEO's assistant (Molly Shannon), to gain access to her boss' private email, but Tyler begins to have second thoughts about their plans when he starts dating her.

For about a solid year and a half after his album "Chief" came out in the summer of 2011, country singer Eric Church was a consummate road warrior, working as hard as any touring act in America. The work paid off with a million-selling album and numerous accolades for the Granite Falls native (and Appalachian State University alumnus). He's been scarce since the calendar turned over, however.

"When the year ended, I really just shut down," he said in a recent interview. "No cell, no nothing, and I've not talked to anybody since the tour ended. In the off-season, I really have to get away because when I tour, I really go at it with everything I've got. So I've just got to have those periods of resetting, where I don't do anything even remotely in the area of music or business. I've got some land near Nashville and I get out and do manual labor. A lot of chainsawing logs, I've gotten good at that."

Church's public profile looks to rise again soon, however -- starting with Sunday night's Grammy Awards, in which he's nominated in two categories. For more, see two pieces in Sunday's paper: an interview with Church on his crossover dreams of the past year, and some fearless predictions as to how he and other North Carolina nominees might do in their respective categories. Then come on back here Sunday evening for the Grammy liveblog to see if any of those predictions panned out.

One thing you can say about Concord's Avett Brothers is that they seem to have done just about everything right, steadily building a career that anyone would love to have. Although they've never had a hit single, the Avetts are one of the top-drawing live acts in the country -- and Grammy-nominated to boot. Their manager, Dolph Ramseur, has had a lot to do with the success of both the Avetts and their fellow Grammy nominees, the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

With two of his charges up for Grammys Sunday night, now seemed like the perfect time to make Ramseur our Tar Heel of the week. Check the story here; and tune in Sunday night to see if the Avetts or the Drops win. I'll be liveblogging the telecast here.

The Walking Dead (10am, AMC) - Clear out the DVR because a marathon of Season 2 of "The Walking Dead" starts at 10 a.m. (and Season 3 plays on Sunday). I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but … people die. The Season 2 marathon starts over at 11:30 p.m., and Season 3 starts at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It's a great chance to catch up!

Too Cute! (8pm, Animal Planet) - Five piglets try to befriend a family dog, young lop-eared rabbits play, and baby hedgehogs have an outdoor adventure with their family.

The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family (9pm, CBS) - A behind-the-scenes look at last-minute changes made to the 2012 Grammy Awards in the wake of Whitney Houston's sudden death. Comments from LL Cool J, Clive Davis, Dave Grohl, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and others. The 2013 Grammy Awards show airs tomorrow night at 8 on CBS.

Pit Boss (9pm, Animal Planet) - A benefit appearance by Ronald and Sebastian features an embarrassing rescue in wigs and dresses. Meanwhile, Ashley can't contain her frustration at Shortywood any longer.

Saturday Night Live (11:29, NBC) - Justin Bieber pulls double duty as host and musical guest.

Austin City Limits (Midnight, UNC-TV) - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros perform songs from their 2012 album "Here," and the experimental R&B act tUnE-yArDs performs from "Whokill."

Dave Rose has been working at all levels of the music industry for a couple of decades now, in which capacity he's had some success (managing country star Allison Moorer and perennial Grammy winner Bruce Hornsby, for example) and also made plenty of mistakes. And he's drawn on that body of work, the bad as well as the good, to write a book about the music business. Read about that, plus details of the reading he's doing this weekend, in Friday’s paper.

Rolling Stone magazine is running another of its online contests, in which the winner is chosen by reader vote. This one is called "My Family Rocks" and it drew more than 20,000 entries when it went online in November. And there's a local family among the 12 finalists: "The Hallman Family, Lexie and the Mira(cle)." Lexie Hallman is a single mother and music director at Raleigh's Temple Beth Or; and if she wins, it will be worth a new Hyundai SUV and a trip to next month's Grammy Awards.

Scroll on down to Hallman's listing and help our local folks out. Vote early, vote often.

Avett Brothers photo gallery

GREENSBORO -- Toward the end of the Avett Brothers' epic Monday night show, Seth Avett looked out over the new-year's-eve throng gathered at Greensboro Coliseum. "Thanks for having us at your party," he said, demonstrating admirable modesty by acknowledging the Avetts' bond with their fans. But let's make no mistake about who the hosts were.

Arguably North Carolina's best growth industry, the Avetts draw rabid crowds of faithful fanatics worldwide. They had a large 2012 with a top-10 album and Grammy nomination, and more big things are on the way in the new year (including a spot at next week's gubernatorial inauguration). But this show made a pretty spectacular take-away for the year just past, a wide-ranging two-hour-plus performance by one of America's best live bands.

Following a solid 55-minute opening set by Amos Lee, the Avetts came onstage done up for the occasion in matching white suits, which did not keep them from matching their audience's fevered intensity. Seth Avett spent much of the show's opening stitch airborne, jumping up and down, and the 15,000-voice accompaniment on "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" was something to hear.

Somehow, the Avetts make an arena feel as intimate as a front-porch hoedown. They don't scream quite as often as they used to, but Monday's show still rocked plenty hard, swinging between wild-eyed frenzy and pensive ruminations. They might be the world's first heavy-metal jugband and if that sounds weird, you'd just have to see it to get it.

Scott Avett moved between piano and banjo, occasionally blowing harmonica and hopping on top of the kickdrum at the front of the stage. Bob Crawford went back and forth between standup and electric bass, while Joe Kwon was his usual dervish on cello. And Seth busted out some four-way-hips dance moves that got over on sheer exuberance.

While the full-band arrangements were great to hear, there's still something ineffably cool about the Avetts when they strip down to the core trio of Seth, Scott and Crawford, which was the configuration for a mini-set starting with "Paranoia in B Flat Major." They also ventured out into the crowd to play a handful of songs on a satellite stage at the back of the arena floor, highlighted by Seth's cover of the Jim Croce chestnut "Operator" (proving that great songs are where you find 'em).

Back on the mainstage, the closing hoedown raveup of "Laundry Room" was my favorite part of the show, with Scott working the kickdrum as psychedelic lights pinwheeled across the arena's ceiling. They rocked up the jittery "Kickdrum Heart" with an almost metallic arrangement, ending with Seth on his knees beating the bejesus out of an electric guitar, and the folk-noir of "Geraldine" took us to the brink of midnight.

As the band vamped on "Auld Lang Syne," the crowd counted down the last 10 seconds of 2012. Confetti and balloons rained down, which turned the rest of the show into a collective game of volleyball -- punctuated with the sound of quasi-fireworks, as the balloons popped one by one.

The encore ranged from hopeful ("Salvation Song," with the Avetts' sister Bonnie out to sing) to furiously rocking ("I Killed Sally's Lover," in another acoustic-metal arrangement). Then they hit a note of quiet triumph with the majestic "I and Love and You" -- "three words that become hard to say."

But for anybody in Greensboro Coliseum as 2012 turned into 2013, it wasn't hard at all.

Grammy nominations concert photo gallery

North Carolina had a decent showing in the Grammy Award nominations announced Wednesday, highlighted by country singer Eric Church's two-category breakthrough. The Granite Falls native (and Appalachian State University alumnus) picked up a pair of nominations for his hit single "Springsteen," for country song and country solo performance -- and this is fresh off winning album of the year at last month's CMA Awards.

Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton was also a multi-category nominee, in R&B song ("Pray For Me") and album ("Back To Love"). Hamilton shared a Grammy in 2009 with Al Green.

Concord's Avett Brothers earned their first-ever Grammy nod with their current album "The Carpenter," nominated for best Americana album alongside Mumford & Sons (one of their half-dozen nominations) and rising young star John Fullbright.

After winning best folk album with their 2010 major-label debut, Triangle old-time group Carolina Chocolate Drops will try to start a streak. Their latest album "Leaving Eden" picked up a nomination, also in the folk-album category.

Brevard's Steep Canyon Rangers were nominated last year alongside Steve Martin. This year, they get a bluegrass-album nomination all to themselves for "Nobody Knows You."

Finally, Triangle expatriate Ryan Adams didn't get a direct nomination himself. But Adams' most recent release, 2011's "Ashes & Fire," was nominated for best-engineered non-classical album. Producer Glyn Johns and mastering engineer Bob Ludwig would get that trophy.

The Grammys will be presented Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.

While all of Tift Merritt's albums have been good, it seems like her best records emerge from transitional crises of faith. Which may or may not be coincidence, but that's what it looks like from here.

When she parted ways with most of her backup band, the result was 2004's Grammy-nominated "Tambourine." A few years later, a stretch of prolonged career frustration yielded up 2008's deeply moving "Another Country." And now we have Merritt's upcoming album "Traveling Alone," which came after she got cut loose by her record label and manager. It's terrific. For more, see the interview in Friday's paper, previewing that evening's free show in Carrboro.

Long as I'm at it, below is a feature I did upon the release of "Another Country," an album that Merritt wrote while living as an expatriate in Paris.
 

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Another City for Merritt: New address, new album, new outlook
By David Menconi, News & Observer
2/24/2008

New York -- Tift Merritt strolls toward the Hudson River in her quiet West Village neighborhood. Having moved here just a few months earlier, the North Carolina singer-songwriter is a newcomer to this tree-lined street with a century-old bohemian heritage.

With the blase sophistication of a seasoned New Yorker, she notes the red brick compound where celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz lives and works, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julian Schnabel's raspberry-colored high-rise. But her face lights up with a newcomer's awe-struck glee when she rhapsodizes about the city's cold-weather palette or points out the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street at West 11th.

"Yeah, that's where the Village Voice was conceived, and where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, " Merritt says. Then she adds with a laugh, "We hope to avoid a similar fate."

Generations of artists and performers have gravitated to New York, some to live in a cultural mecca amid the Leibovitzes and Schnabels and legends. Others come with larger-than-life dreams, the 8 million-to-1 chance of being discovered, for reinvention or escape.

Merritt's reasons were more pragmatic than dreamy. With her third album on the way ("Another Country, " on Fantasy Records, arriving Tuesday), a national tour about to start and a new monthly public-radio show, New York simply made more sense than North Carolina, her home base since childhood.

In New York, the apartment she shares with drummer Zeke Hutchins is a few minutes away from her manager's office. She can get just about anywhere she needs to be faster from New York than RDU.

But there's also the irresistible confluence of only-in-New York energy. Merritt had barely arrived when she found herself on the "I'm Not There" Bob Dylan tribute concert at the Beacon Theatre in November with Joe Henry, My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo and other alternative-rock stars.

"We were literally moving stuff into the apartment when we heard that a female singer had to cancel, " says Merritt, 33. "My manager called to ask, I got on the show and there was no pressure. It was great."

The New York Times agreed, saying she had "the night's purest voice." Variety called her performance "the program's most gripping."

Of course, Merritt got plenty of love from her old hometown, especially after she earned a Grammy nomination for "Tambourine, " her 2004 album. She advanced from selling out local clubs to such prestigious engagements as opening the N.C. Museum of Art's summer concert season and performing with the N.C. Symphony.

Behind the scenes, however, were struggles with her label, her manager and the industry itself. She abandoned music, went to Paris and finally found herself in the place she needed to be.

"In France, I discovered that I love writing in the city, " Merritt says. "There's such an intensity to being in the city that matches the intensity of what you're experiencing in your head. So you go out on the street in this haze and you're met with an equivalent amount of energy. As opposed to going through the aisles of the grocery store down there, feeling like a freak in dreamland."

Going wrong, going right

At a small cafe near her studio apartment, Merritt settles in over coffee and croissants and talks about the decline that began, as all declines do, at the top. Her Grammy nomination, for country album of the year, felt like validation and fuel for a commercial breakthrough. But the breakthrough never came.

"The label thought the Grammy nomination was a fluke, " Merritt sighs into her coffee. "That made me feel good the first time I heard it."

From a distance of two years, she can see the honor's downside. "Tambourine" (on Lost Highway Records) didn't sound Nashville enough for country radio. Yet with Grammy branding it country, other formats ignored it. Sales stalled at 68,000 copies 11,000 more than 2002's "Bramble Rose, " but well short of expectations.

"The hardest part for me was feeling like I was just back in the van spinning my wheels, " she says. "I'd become more of a performer than a writer, and the focus was on just doing the same 13 songs every night, over and over. There was no way we could work any harder, but I couldn't see that it was getting us anywhere."

One night, Merritt poured herself a glass of wine and did a Google search on "Paris," "apartment" and "piano." She found a place to sublet and flew to Paris in summer 2005.

"I went off to France really thinking I might not do this anymore, " she says. "Maybe I'd teach, write novels, figure out something else. But I had not anticipated writing anything at all because I felt empty, like I had nothing to say."

But Paris turned out to be what she needed to rediscover her voice as a writer. Listening to Merritt talk about the experience brings Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris" to mind: I was a free man in Paris/I felt unfettered and alive/There was nobody calling me up for favors/And no one's future to decide.

"France was very opposite of the show-business experience I'd been living, " Merritt says. "I was anonymous and alone. I wore no makeup, wore the same clothes every day. And I wrote and wrote and wrote. It was like I had a chance to catch my breath, and I suddenly went back to what I really am: a writer. It surprised me, and it was a relief. Although it wasn't, 'Everything's OK now because this is gonna be a hit!'"

Most of the songs on "Another Country" emerged during several stays in Paris. The lyrics sound like the musings of someone in crisis, with song after song about loneliness, longing, trying to connect. "Broken, " the first single, concludes with a murmuring coda that could be the theme for the project: "I think I will break but I mend." The title track likens love to a faraway country because sometimes you have to go a long way to find what you're looking for.

"It became clear very early on that 'Another Country' was the umbrella this whole thing came under, " Merritt says. "I'm just following a tradition, the American expatriate in Paris. You feel that when you're over there."

Seeing more than music

After coffee, Merritt catches a subway for the Museum of Modern Art. On the way, a steady stream of messages trickles in via her iPhone, including one with welcome news from her manager: KGSR-FM in Austin, Texas, is playing "Broken." Last time she couldn't crack the playlist at this influential station.

So far, all the news about "Another Country" is good, including a four-star rave review in Paste magazine. Whether the album gets any further than "Tambourine" or "Bramble Rose" is up to the fates. But Merritt is ready to do her part.

"I'm scared about doing it, and about not doing it, " Merritt says about firing up the endless-touring cycle again. "About what will or won't happen. I'm getting back in the van. That's all I can say."

With the tour looming, today might be her last chance to visit MoMA for a while. Being in New York rekindles artistic interests other than music fiction (she studied creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill), photography and even painting. Merritt moves through galleries devoted to Pablo Picasso and Jasper Johns, noting favorites. She pauses before French painter Vuillard's "The Park, " an 1894 painting that depicts an idyllic scene in Paris.

"It's really like this in the parks over there, " she says, smiling at the memory. "The streets and sidewalks are lined with chairs. You see people sleeping, reading, sitting with their jackets off, playing chess, even making out. It was amazing, the days over there. So much intimacy. I can sound over-the-top silly talking about it."

In an upper-floor gallery, Merritt walks directly to "The Italians" by American abstract painter Cy Twombly. Wild marks cover the 6-by-8-foot canvas and give it the look of a graffiti wall.

"This is what a lot of his paintings are like, " she says. "Sometimes there's a word or a piece of a phrase on this huge canvas" such as the word "ROMA, " scrawled in the painting's upper right corner. "It's like he's writing a letter. I love how the words and the paint interact, so passionate and emotional."

Merritt's fascination with Twombly inspired her radio show, "The Spark, " which is transmitted from the artistic outpost of Marfa, Texas. On the program, which debuted in January with author and "ambassador of goodness" Nick Hornby, Merritt talks to other artists, peer-to-peer, about their methods and inspirations. In coming shows, she interviews poet C.K. Williams, landscape painter Wolf Kahn and bluegrass trio Nickel Creek.

She would love to talk to Twombly, the man behind the complex painting that's reduced to a clinical description in the text on the museum wall.

"This is the man, the reason why I started the radio show, " Merritt says. "He's this 79-year-old man and I can't find anything remotely human written about him. When I told my mentor at UNC about it, he said, 'Why don't you? He's probably lonely in his studio.' And I decided he was right. Young artists need to know what he thought about this, and what he sees when he looks at his work and how his wife gets the crayon out of his shirt."

She pauses to laugh, then turns back to the picture.

"I can't explain why I see something of myself in this painting, " she says softly. "But I do. I could sit in front of this for days."

Into 'pop' at last

In Merritt's apartment, there's a to-do list on the bulletin board by the door. Some of the items "label, " "manager" and "songs recorded" are checked off. "Paris apartment, " "finish college" and other items remain. But Merritt and Hutchins, her business partner as well as drummer and boyfriend, have accomplished amazing things over the past year.

Along with recording "Another Country, " they struck new deals with Fantasy/Concord Records label home to John Fogerty and the late Ray Charles and manager David Newgarden, whose clients include Robert Pollard/Guided by Voices, Cibo Matto and other rock acts. Newgarden says he hesitated to take on Merritt until he learned that she wanted to move away from country music.

Merritt was somewhat miscast as a country singer, and "Another Country" should move her into the "pop" category for good.

"I guess this album is my departure from Nashville, " she says. "Which is ironic, given the title and the fact that it's my follow-up to a country Grammy nomination. So what do I do but go off to France during the 'Freedom Fries' period and write this. It's going to confuse people."

Merritt recorded the album in Los Angeles with "Tambourine" producer George Drakoulias and the core of her regular band: Hutchins, bassist Jay Brown and keyboardist Danny Eisenberg. If "Tambourine" was Merritt's "Dusty in Memphis" blue-eyed-soul move, "Another Country" would sound at home in Laurel Canyon, somewhere between Carole King and Bonnie Raitt.

A move to Los Angeles would have made sense, given the album's West Coast laid-back vibe. But Merritt decided New York was a better fit.

"I want to be in the real game to take it seriously and be where it happens, " she says. "Maybe I can advocate better for myself if I can pop in on people for coffee. Somebody told me once, 'Don't go to New York to find yourself or your voice, find it somewhere else and bring it to the city.' Which was great advice."

She doesn't know how long her New York sojourn will last, in part because she'll be on the road for most of 2008. She thinks about children, and she'd like to go back to Paris and live there awhile, too.

Whatever her mailing address, there's little doubt about where home remains.

"North Carolina is still such a huge part of our lives, it almost doesn't matter where we live, " Merritt says. "As much as we tour, we're never home, anyway. Six months from now, we will probably have spent more time in North Carolina than New York."