[Songs of Iris, 2023] Heretical though it presumably is to diehard fans, I simply cannot get into the albums that established Iris DeMent as a country icon: her debut Precious Angel [Philo, 1992] and its follow-up My Life [Warner Bros., 1994]. In those early days, her voice sounds relentlessly emotive, so much so that after a few songs I’m somehow both worn out and unconvinced they hit their mark. But increasingly with every album since, and particularly on her last two original albums—2012’s Sing the Delta [Flariella] and this month’s Workin’ On A World [Songs of Iris]—she’s won me over.
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Iris DeMent: "Workin' on a World"
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[Songs of Iris, 2023] Heretical though it presumably is to diehard fans, I simply cannot get into the albums that established Iris DeMent as a country icon: her debut Precious Angel [Philo, 1992] and its follow-up My Life [Warner Bros., 1994]. In those early days, her voice sounds relentlessly emotive, so much so that after a few songs I’m somehow both worn out and unconvinced they hit their mark. But increasingly with every album since, and particularly on her last two original albums—2012’s Sing the Delta [Flariella] and this month’s Workin’ On A World [Songs of Iris]—she’s won me over.