Mar 27, 2026 7:26am PT

Tift Merritt Is Set to Bring the ‘Sugar’ With Her First New Album in Nine Years: ‘I Got Back in Front of That Microphone and Was Like, Oh, This Is My Place’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Chris Willman

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Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

ChrisWillman

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With Tift Merritt revealing that she has an album of new material on the way after nine years without one, fans may have an instinctual reaction to the fact that it’s titled “Sugar,” as if to say, of course — because they’ve had a sweet tooth for what she has to offer that has gone unsatisfied for a bit.

There is piquant quality to what this North Carolina native has to bring to music that could not arrive at a more necessary time, and the new album, due June 26 via One Riot Records, is every bit as tender and tough-minded as what you would expect from the woman who brought you classic records like “Tambourine,” and possibly even more joyful. She rediscovered her own full-blown love of making music while working with producer Lawrence Rothman on the project, and that refreshment, combined with an acknowledgement of not-so-sweet times for many of us, makes for a record that is both bracingly real and ebullient.

Tift Merritt Is Set to Bring the 'Sugar' With Her First New Album in Nine Years: 'I Got Back in Front of That Microphone and Was Like, Oh, This Is My Place' (EXCLUSIVE)