Merritt's music is hard to pin down: She incorporates gospel, soul, '70s California rock 'n' roll and warm echoes of Joni Mitchell's brand of folk music into her piano-based country songs.
On the day of the San Francisco Giants World Series parade, I made my way to the corner of California and Montgomery where I was sure I had a pretty good vantage to watch the players roll by in their rubber-wheeled cable cars.
That would widen their margin of power before returns begin to roll in from the West, where Democrats hope to pick up as many as four seats in California, at least one and maybe two in Washington and one each in Utah and Montana.