Comments on: Six Pack: Iris DeMent

By: Abdul Majeed

Abdul Majeed — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 06:39:08 +0000

Sing the Delta is definitely a keeper.

By: J.R. Journey

J.R. Journey — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:06:31 +0000

Like Ben, I hadn’t listened to an entire album by Iris Dement until I heard Sing The Delta. I had heard her name before, and am familiar with Sunny Sweeney’s version of “Mama’s Opry”. But I do have Iris on my shortlist of artists to check out in 2013. Thanks for a starting place.

By: Uninterested Observer

Uninterested Observer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:43:06 +0000

For a career 6 pack, I’d have included When My Mornin’ Comes Around from The Way I Should.

By: Ben Foster

Ben Foster — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:21:05 +0000

Sing the Delta was actually the first DeMent album that I listened from beginning to end (though I had heard her name here and there for some time before), and I loved it, so I'm quite eager to dig into her previous work. Thanks for the recommendations, Kevin!

By: Jonathan Keefe

Jonathan Keefe — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:42:26 +0000

Thrilled to see this here! Iris DeMent's music just rips my heart out, and this 6-song sampler is a good indicator of why. Also worth mentioning that some of the music from Lifeline, her 2004 album of southern gospel standards, was featured in the Coen Brothers' (excellent) remake of True Grit. Hearing her rendition of "Leaning On the Everlasting Arms" over the end credits to that film prompted me to go back and revisit that album, and it just made me all the more antsy to hear new music from her. Thankfully, Sing the Delta was worth the long wait.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:13:30 +0000

I’m glad you wrote this. I’m a very big Iris Dement fan and her new album didn’t disappoint. I hope this article will inspire people to go back and check out her music.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 22:51:06 +0000

Thanks for including “Wasteland of the Free”. She doesn’t mince words and as you say she names all the right culprits. Hard to believe that it was written that long ago. Her observations are as relevant today as they were then. I’ll have to look into her music some more.

I first heard of Iris Dement about 15 years ago when I read “In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of Country Music” by Nicholas Dawidoff. It was a library book and I don’t recall now to what extent it dealt with Dement’s music. I had previously read Dawidoff’s “The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg”.

More recently I discovered that Dement wrote “Mama’s Opry”, one of my favorite tracks on Sunny Sweeney’s “Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame” cd and I see now that it was on Dement’s debut album.