Part of an occasional series that looks at significant anniversary re-releases of iconic albums as they are put out.
Happy 30th anniversary to Iris DeMent, who has re-released her second album, “My Life,” on the Yep Roc label. Mike Westbrook of MW Audio has remastered the tracks, marking the first wide release of this out-of-print record. The collection was initially released in 1994 and was then lauded as the cornerstone of contemporary folk music, with DeMent’s vocal and songwriting skills shining throughout the ten-track set.
This re-issue copy doesn’t include any extra tracks, demos, or live versions, but since it has been out of print for so long, it is an opportunity for the curious to see the impact it would have had back in 1994. Dement was born in Paragould, Arkansas and was the youngest child of Pat Dement and his wife Flora Mae. They were a large musical family, as DeMent’s mother loved singing and could have gone to Nashville herself as a singer before settling down to family life.
Dement’s first album, “Infamous Angel,” was released on the Philo label in 1992. She self-penned the song “Our Town” on a drive through a ghost town in the American Midwest. The lyrics just came to her, and its lilting, mournful delivery perfectly captured the material’s essence. The song was used as the music for the closing scene for the final episode of the CBS classic show “Northern Exposure” in 1995, and it fitted flawlessly.
Two years later, she released “My Life“, a personal album dedicated to her late father, who had died two years earlier. Recorded at The Cowboy Arms Hotel & Recording Spa, Nashville, and produced by Jim Rooney, the record features DeMent on guitar and vocals, supported by a cast of all-star musicians. The production is simple, and DeMent’s vocal performance takes centre stage.
To understand DeMent’s relationship with folk and religion, she recounts her father’s bond with both. Before she was born, Dement’s father used to play the fiddle; however, he had hidden it away when he found religion and was saved, feeling it was sinful to play anything other than hymns. DeMent tells how one day, looking in the closet, she uncovered the old fiddle wrapped up and hidden away. She suddenly felt overwhelmed and quickly returned it. Why was it there, and why had she never heard her father play it? Years later, after her father had suffered a stroke, her older brothers wheeled him outside with the fiddle on his lap. Although getting the words out was difficult, he explained how he came by the fiddle in the first place. He had grown up on an island in the middle of the St. Francis River named Indian Hill. One day, DeMent’s grandfather met a “fiddler-fisherman” who wanted to sell the fiddle. Grandfather DeMent bought the instrument and took it home. He hung it on a nail high on the wall and said the older boys could play it. At that time, Pat DeMent was only 5 years old, so he could only watch as his brothers played. Eventually picking up the courage, young Pat DeMent asked if he could try. Picking a solid tune, his father declared, “Look like that’s your fiddle, Pat”. Hymns, gospel and old country music are the roots of DeMent’s heritage and musical influence.
The songs on the album are for her father. ‘No Time to Cry’ captures the spirit of the whole collection and sums up modern life. DeMent after her father’s funeral had to rush off, almost straight afterwards to play a show. “I’ve got no time to look back, I’ve got no time to see / The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me / And if the feeling starts to coming, I’ve learned to stop ’em fast /. ‘Cause I don’t know, if I let ’em go, they might not wanna pass”. A simple piano and guitar provide the melody on this beautiful, bitter-sweet track.
The feeling of loss is captured in a cathartic way, and for anyone who has lost a loved one, the album will bring a smile of recognition of how the outward grief may fade, but it’s still there at the core. As DeMent writes on the track “Easy’s Gettin Harder Every Day“, “I had a garden but my flowers died / There ain’t much living here inside / And lately, I don’t know what I’m holding on to / But I’ll never make it up to Coeur d’Alene / There ain’t no chance of me forgetting my name / And easy’s gettin’ harder every day”.
It seems like Patrick Shaw DeMent left an impression on his youngest, and her talent is a telling tribute to the man. Thirty years on, “My Life” is still a stunning collection of poetry and songs.
