Beautiful homespun songs with deep conviction

The youngest of 14 children, Iris DeMent was born in Paragould, Arkansas, and moved to California with her devoutly religious family when she was three. As a teenager she absorbed the country music of Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash, as well as the folk classics of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Her 1992 debut album, "Infamous Angel," distilled these influences into a poetic yet down-to-earth songwriting style. With a heartfelt, homespun voice that listeners recognize instantly, Iris released some of the most powerful roots albums of the 1990s with the beautifully sparse "My Life" and the harder-edged "The Way I Should." She has continued to make powerful and distinctive albums on her own schedule, and her latest, just out, is “Workin’ on a World.” This striking collection of songs faces the modern world—as it is right now—with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness, and epidemic of violence and social injustice. The album not only asks us how we can keep working towards a better world, but implores us to love each other, despite our very different ways of seeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer spaces.



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