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Iris DeMent, past and present.

Unless you are a deep diver into the Singer/Songwriter and/or modern "hard" (Traditional) Country music genres, you may be unaware of Iris DeMent and her music. She is highly respected by her peers (John Prine---with whom she collaborated quite a bit, Emmylou Harris, Buddy & Julie Miller, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale, etc.), and had her incredible song "No Time To Cry" covered by Merle Haggard himself.

Her 1992 debut album Infamous Angel was reissued on LP (vinyl for you kids) and CD by Yep Rock last year (the album includes "Let The Mystery Be", covered by the band 10,000 Maniacs. The Goo Goo Dolls wrote a song about her, naming it "Iris".), and her new album Workin’ On A World will be out on February 24th. Can’t wait! I’ve seen & heard her on stage three times, and she is by a wide margin the best live singer I’ve ever heard. Plays great piano, too.

Rock music critic Robert Christgau gave Infamous Angel a grade of B+, her 1994 second album My Life (which includes "No Time To Cry") and A+ (!), her 1996 third album The Way I Should an A, and her 2012 fifth Sing The Delta an A-. Not bad for a poor country girl ;-) .

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mikelavigne
2,163 posts
 

+++++

big fan of Iris DeMent, saw her 'live' open for Emmylou Harris in 2003-2004 here in Seattle. this was after i had fallen for her first few albums. she stole the show.

play "Easy's Gettin' Harder Ever Day" off 'My Life' on a regular basis. one of my favorite cuts. as honest and hard hitting a voice as i've yet heard.

gpgr4blu
1,079 posts
 

Not nearly as well known as she should be. John Prine was a big fan.

I got turned on to her  in 1993 after listening to 10,000 Maniacs and David Byrne sing "Let The Mystery Be" on a 4 song cd. I saw the songwriter's name and immediately purchased "Infamous Angel". That was that.

hifiguy42
150 posts
 

I'm a big fan of both Iris and her husband's music.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
9,510 posts
 

I took Iris’ My Life CD (no LP release of the album in 1994) to the Vegas CES in the late 90’s (enabled by my pal and hi-fi retailer Brooks Berdan), to use as audition material. Big mistake; with "No Time To Cry" played back through Jerry Crosby’s modified QUAD ESL loudspeakers, I ended up putting the lie to that assertion, tears streaming down my cheeks. No harm done: Jerry agreed to send me a pair of his QUAD 57 front screens anyway ;-) .

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