Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

DeMENT, Iris

(b 5 January 1961, Paragould AR) Traditional-sounding country singer-songwriter, youngest of 14 children, who came to prominence in the early '90s with incisive and cutting-edge recordings for Philo/Rounder and WB. She grew up in a musical family in California; her father played fiddle, mother sang, and with elder sisters she formed the DeMent Sisters. She began a solo career playing folk clubs in Kansas City, relocated to Nashville, sang sessions with Emmylou Harris, Jann Brown and Nanci Griffith, then was signed by Jim Rooney to Philo/Rounder to produce Infamous Angel '92, critically acclaimed, especially in Europe, but the album failed to dent tight American playlists at the time, though 'Let The Mystery Be' and 'Our Town' were widely covered. Warner Brothers picked up her contract, reissued the album and released follow-up My Life '94; her refreshingly authentic folk-styled country music will not set any sales records, but it doesn't matter: she is a rare free spirit, an antidote to the country version of the Stepford Wife. The Way I Should '96 was up to standard, including 'Wasteland Of The Free' ('We kill for oil and throw a party when we win').

In Spite Of Ourselves was a deliciously ribald duet album with John Prine, notable for its title track, which wasn't played much on the radio. Lifeline in 2004 was a collection of gospel standards, from which 'Leaning On The Everlasting Arms' was used at the end of the Coen brothers movie True Grit in 2010. It was the first album on her new Flariella label. Meanwhile she had got divorced, remarried and moved to Iowa, home of her singer-songwriter husband, Greg Brown, who ought to be better known. For years she cared for her widowed mother, Flora Mae, who died in August of 2012 at age 93. She said she had written enough songs for an album but her heart wasn't in it. 'Then, with my mom getting sick and passing...It felt like that door opened.' Sing The Delta 2012 was her first collection of original material in 16 years. Brown and DeMent adopted a six-year-old girl from Russia; then DeMent discovered the poetry of Anna Akhmatova and was enchanted: The Trackless Woods was recorded in June 2014 in her living room, Leo Kottke among the guests taking part, 16 tracks setting Akhmatova's words to DeMent's music.