Iris Dement & Jason Wilber
Iris Dement & Jason Wilber |
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by Pat Hartman Singer-songwriter-guitarist Iris DeMent is the shining epitome of what country folk music is all about. A high-school dropout at 17, she snagged an equivalency diploma before moving to Kansas, where she entered the world of McJobs. Somewhere along the way, she taught herself to strum on a borrowed guitar, and took a college course in creative writing. But how did Dement, who started writing songs at age 25, become such a very accomplished lyricist? Well, there was the simple and direct example of Gospel - "the one form of music that was consistently in my world from the beginning." |
In the late 1980s, DeMent moved to Nashville and almost immediately scored a recording contract. Her first album, released in 1992, was also her breakthrough album. Infamous Angel proved she could write a kickass love song, like "Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart." And also a love-is-over song, such as "After You're Gone." And, a salvaging-love song, like "Sweet Forgiveness." "Let the Mystery Be" was performed on MTV Unplugged by Natalie Merchant and David Byrne, and is heard in the movie Little Buddha. "These Hills" started out to say something about American Indians, and ended up being universal. "Our Town" is a lament for the loss of all things simple and good, and for the displacement that time brings to the aged. It was played at the end of the last episode of the tremendously popular TV series Northern Exposure. DeMent's second album, My Life, earned a Grammy nomination. Its "Childhood Memories" is as authentic a work of nostalgic Americana as you'll find anywhere. The Way I Should (1996) had a political bent and the writer thought it possible that one song, "Wasteland of the Free," might get her killed. But if a person doesn't have the courage to say in public what she says around the kitchen table, then what's the point? "This Kind of Happy" was co-written with Merle Haggard, on a tour bus. In 1999, DeMent collaborated with John Prine on the album In Spite of Ourselves, whose title track is heard in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Daddy and Them. She played a character called Rose Gentry in the film Songcatcher, and appeared many times on the Prairie Home Companion TV show. Domestic happiness came with DeMent's marriage in 2002 to singer-songwriter Greg Brown. Her image is determinedly anti-glamour, like the photo of her hanging laundry in the back yard. On the other hand, it makes sense. In "Mama's Opry," the message is about the great influence of music on a little kid. The mother pegs wet clothes to the washline and sings traditional songs that leave a deep impression on the singer's soul. "Higher Ground" is on the same theme, starting with a spoken line: "No voice has inspired me more than my mother's. She showed me that music is a pathway to higher ground." Set foot on that path at Avo's, March 19.
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