Iris DeMent - My Life (30th Anniversary) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

With The Way I Should, Iris DeMent stepped boldly into new territory, delivering a collection that balanced her fierce lyrical conviction with tender vulnerability. Released in 1996, this third studio album from the revered Americana singer-songwriter expanded on her folk and country roots, blending sharp political commentary with deeply personal storytelling.Backed by a fuller, more contemporary sound and featuring collaborations with legends like Delbert McClinton and Mark Knopfler, DeMent doesn't shy away from weighty topics. From government corruption (InchWasteland of the FreeInch) to working-class struggle (InchQuality TimeInch), she gives voice to the disillusioned with searing honesty and soulful grit.Yet for all it's pointed critique, The Way I Should is just as powerful in it's quieter moments. Songs like InchWhen My Mornin' Comes AroundInch and InchKeep Me GodInch shimmer with grace, hope, and an unwavering moral compass. DeMent's unmistakable voice anchors every track with a sense of authenticity that's rare and resonant.The Way I Should is a fearless statement from a singular voice in American music. Timeless in message and rich in heart, it remains one of DeMent's most compelling and relevant works.In celebration of the album's 30th anniversary, Yep Roc Records is reissuing The Way I Should on CD. The album is remastered by Mike Westbrook of Material Mastering. Album Tracks 1. When My Mornin' Comes Around 2. There's a Wall in Washington 3. Wasteland of the Free 4. I'll Take My Sorrow Straight 5. This Kind of Happy 6. The Way I Should 7. Letter to Mom 8. Keep Me God 9. Quality Time 10. Walkin' Home 11. Trouble (With Delbert McClinton)

Iris DeMent released Infamous Angel in 1992. Nearly 30 years later, the album remains among the most singular and fully realized singer-songwriter debuts since the invention of that category in the early '70s. The abiding strengths of the album are especially impressive ' even a bit startling ' because 1992 is not a moment usually associated with her intimate brand of acoustic country music. In country history, the year 1992 is most immediately affiliated with Garth Brooks, whose album, The Chase, topped both the country and pop album charts that year, and with Billy Ray Cyrus Achy Breaky Heart,' which fueled a line dance craze. Squeezed into a playlist alongside such hits, DeMent's doleful, hushed 'Our Town' would've sounded as if it were being broadcast from another planet. 'People call me country,' she told journalist Ben Thompson while on tour in Britain a couple years later. 'But country doesn't call me country.' Let's call her country. The genre is always more expansive than what radio stations program. It happened Infamous Angel is close kin to a different sort of country music that was just then having a moment specifically, country singer-songwriters, focusing on personal, but universal, loss and hope and favoring small acoustic combos. It may have been out of step with the mainstream, but Infamous Angel arrived right on time. Album Tracks 1. Let the Mystery Be 2. These Hills 3. Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart 4. When Love Was Young 5. Our Town 6. Fifty Miles of Elbow Room 7. Infamous Angel 8. Sweet Forgiveness 9. After You're Gone 10. Mama's Opry 11. Higher Ground

Considered Inchone of the great voices in contemporary popular musicInch (NPR), Iris DeMent has returned with an album unlike any other in her illustrious career. Featuring original music and melodies by Iris, The Trackless Woods (August 7) sets 18 poems by acclaimed 20th century Russian poet Anna Akhmatova to life. Hailed as one of Russia's finest poets, Akhmatova survived the Bolshevik Revolution, both World Wars and Stalin. She lost family, friends and fellow writers to political killings and labor in the gulags. When Iris randomly stumbled upon Akhmatova's work in a book of poetry a friend sent as a gift, she was immediately taken by the sorrow and burden of the poems, juxtaposed with Akhmatova's lightness and transcendence in the face of inhumanity.InchAnna's gift of song is so strong, about alI I had to do was get really quiet and listen,Inch says Iris. After reading that first poem the melodies began pouring out of her, and before she even fully understood what was driving her, Iris was gathering musicians and friends, including co-producer Richard Bennett (Emmylou Harris, Neil Diamond, Steve Earle), to record The Trackless Woods in her living room over a five-day period.The result is a breathtaking pairing of piano and voice in Iris' sui generis style with timeless melodies that are deeply rooted in the American South. The project also fulfilled a long yearned-for desire to connect with her adopted daughter's culture and history. Iris and her husband adopted their daughter from Siberia in 2005, and she says InchI'd never have made this record were it not for her.Inch Album Tracks 1. To My Poems 2. Broad Gold 3. And This You Call Work 4. From An Oriental Notebook 5. Prayer 6. Not with Deserters 7. All Is Sold 8. Reject the Burden 9. From An Airplane 10. Oh How Good 11. Like a White Stone 12. Song About Songs 13. Listening to Singin