Iris DeMent (continued)-
Her songs, performed on piano and guitar, are punctuated by humorous anecdotes which
intensify an audience's vulnerability to the gripping message of those songs.
Iris was the last of fourteen children born to a church-centered family.
Within the family and the church she learned to sing and play piano. Iris was
three years old when the family moved from Paragould, Ark. to Orange County,
Cal., where as a teen she discovered she was in conflict with much of what was
being said in church and left. At 17 she quit high school, got a GED and went
to work at K-Mart. This was the start of a string of unfulfilling jobs, but
it was also those years and the time spent questioning herself that led her,
at age 25, to embrace the dream she'd had since childhood--to "write songs and
sing 'em for people".
She writes about life's inescapable beginnings and endings: its meaning, our
social fabric and our shortcomings. Her three albums, marked by great
songwriting, honest presentation and resonant vocals, have received wide
critical acclaim. The song "Our Town" from her 1992 debut Infamous Angel
was used to close the final episode of the television series Northern
Exposure. "Let The Mystery Be", also from that album, was used in the motion
picture Little Buddha. Her second album, My Life, a Grammy nominee in
1994, was followed by The Way I Should in 1996.
Iris has toured extensively in the United States and Europe to enthusiastic
receptions. She has appeared in support of John Prine, Nanci Griffith,
Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin and Tom Petty. Her television and radio
appearances include The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno, The Conan O'Brien Show, Austin City Limits and A Prairie
Home Companion.
"And I discovered an artist on this tape I'd never heard before, Iris DeMent,
who knocked me out! I gotta say this, I didn't come 58 years to have a girl
knock me out as a singer. [Laughs] Girl singers are not my favorite thing in
the world. But boy is she great! She's like a female Jimmie Rodgers or Lefty
Frizzell or something"
Merle Haggard
quoted in Musician
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