Tift Merritt Endorses Anne Murray, Roller Skates on 'Moon'

Tift Merritt's new album, 'See You On the Moon,' is chock full of new songs that deal with a host of topics such as her grandparents and juvenile delinquents. But the singer-songwriter also took time out for a few choice covers: namely, Emitt Rhodes' 'Live Til You Die' and the Kenny Loggins classic 'Danny's Song,' the latter of which became a Top 10 hit in 1972 for Anne Murray. Merritt tells Spinner that that the choice for that song came from a stark defense of Miss Murray and her choice of hairstyle back then.

"In the studio, we were playing with these roller skates and someone made a comment about roller skating singers from the '70s," Merritt recalls. "And somehow, somebody said something about Anne Murray's haircut and we all turned around and said, 'Don't mess with Anne Murray.'"

"We pulled up all these videos of her and it made us cheer up," she continues. "I'd just gotten married, our bass player had just gotten married, and all of a sudden, a song that was our parents' became ours. We were just joking around about putting it on the record, but everybody that heard it said, 'Dude, you have to put it on the record.'"

Roller skating may have taken a backseat over the years to other forms of entertainment -- roller rinks are about as common as drive-ins these days -- but that didn't stop Merritt from going to a flea market to buy a pair, which eventually led to the Murray conversation and the 'Danny Boy' recording.

"If I'm going to go out on wheels, I'm roller skating, not roller blading," she states for the record.

Merritt's currently rolling around the country with Canadian folk singer Jason Collett, playing numerous East Coast dates through late July, before heading west.