Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Paragould, Arkansas. Born in 1961, she grows up in a Pentecostal household and moves to the Los Angeles area with her family when she is three. Her work draws on country, folk and gospel music, and she is known for writing songs with personal, reflective and often political themes.

Early life and background

DeMent is the youngest of 14 children, born to Pat DeMent and Flora Mae DeMent. Her mother has an early ambition to sing in Nashville, and her voice becomes an influence on DeMent’s own musical development. DeMent sings from the age of five as one of “the little DeMent sisters”, but after a difficult early performance in which she forgets the words, she avoids public performance for a time.

Growing up in southern California, she is exposed to country and gospel music, which remain central influences in her style.

Recording career

DeMent’s first song, “Our Town”, comes to her at the age of 25 after a drive through a boarded-up Midwestern town. She later describes the song as arriving fully formed. It is used in the closing scene of the final episode of Northern Exposure, and it is also recorded by Kate Rusby, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher, and Trampled by Turtles.

Her debut album, Infamous Angel, appears in 1992 on Rounder-Philo. It includes songs shaped by religious skepticism, small-town life and human frailty. Her second album, My Life, follows in 1994 and continues her personal, introspective approach. It is dedicated to her father, who dies two years earlier, and it receives a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

In 1996 she releases The Way I Should, which includes “Wasteland of the Free”. This is her most overtly political record, addressing sexual abuse, religion, government policy and Vietnam.

Later albums and label work

In 2004 DeMent releases Lifeline, an album of gospel songs containing 12 covers and one original, “He Reached Down”. It is her first release on Flariella Records, a label she starts herself and names after her mother. A shortened version of her recording of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” is later used in the closing credits of the Coen brothers’ film True Grit.

In 2012 she releases Sing the Delta, her first album of original songs in 16 years. In 2015 she releases The Trackless Woods on Flariella, an album based on and inspired by the words of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

Collaborations and appearances

DeMent sings the duet “Bell Bottomed Tear” during The Beautiful South’s Much Later with Jools live special in 1997. She records four duets with John Prine on his 1999 album In Spite of Ourselves, including the title track, and later appears with him again on his 2016 duets album For Better, or Worse, contributing to two tracks.

She appears in the 2000 film Songcatcher as Rose Gentry and also sings on the soundtrack. She records “Ridin’ That Midnight Train” with Ralph Stanley for the opening track of his 2001 album Clinch Mountain Sweethearts: Ralph Stanley & Friends. She also sings with Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris, appears on recordings by other performers, contributes harmony vocals to Josh Turner’s “Pallbearer” on Punching Bag, and sings Merle Haggard’s “Big City” on Tulare Dust: A Songwriters’ Tribute to Merle Haggard.

DeMent makes frequent appearances on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion.

Recognition

DeMent is nominated for two Grammy Awards. She receives the Americana Trailblazer Award at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.

Notable songs

“Let the Mystery Be” is covered by several artists, including 10,000 Maniacs and Alice Stuart. It is used in the opening scenes of Little Buddha, and a version from the Transatlantic Sessions later becomes the opening theme for The Leftovers and is also used in the series finale. The rock band Goo Goo Dolls names its 1998 song “Iris” after her.