Grammy nomination puts Tift Merritt in the fast lane.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Malcolm Mayhew

Tift Merritt's Nashville-based record label, Lost Highway, has turned her career into an open highway.

The Houston-born, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter released one of last year's most anything-goes record, "Tambourine," an album carved out of gospel hymns, folky guitar strums, `60s soul and hard-rock riffage. No way, she says, would another record company give her such wide open spaces.

"I'm the best example of how cool they are," says Merritt, who just turned 30. "To let a nobody like me do what they want, that's really awesome."

Lost Highway received a nice payback for allowing Merritt to run amok in the studio: "Tambourine" just got a Grammy nomination for best country album.

"I didn't even know the nominations were that day," she says, calling from New York, where she says she's shopping for a Grammy dress. "I just thought to myself, `That's one thing I don't need to worry about, getting nominated for a Grammy.' I'd been with my family that day and was checking my e-mail, and they all said `Grammy' in the subject line so I thought, `I guess someone we know got nominated.' Then I opened them up, and I was like, `Oh, my Lord.' We had a great party that night."

But Merritt's record is definitely a sheep among wolves; "Tambourine" is going up against efforts by Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and the almighty Loretta Lynn CD, "Van Lear Rose," which turned up on several critics' top 10 lists and ushered in a whole new wave of interest and respect for Lynn; Merritt says she doesn't stand a chance.