Do we need to enumerate the ways Iris DeMent is so marvellous? She possesses a voice which is never forgotten once you hear it, akin to that of Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton or Lucinda Williams. At several parts of this show, the second visit she has made to London in 18 months, DeMent made a church seem like a Victorian salon, drawing in the audience with her opaque truisms, rambling intros, and fumbling for picks and capos from a purse.
DeMent has spent 30 years earning the respect of her audience who let her go at the pace she wanted to go at. Her career began with the 1992 album “Infamous Angel”, from which she pulled the gorgeous ‘Let the Mystery Be’. Having waited out the Trump presidency, which drew plenty of commentary during the show, her last album “Workin’ on a World” was her first with original lyrics in over a decade. It included some acerbic criticism of the man, wrapped up in exquisite melodies and matched with interesting arrangements. DeMent sat at the piano to play the album’s title track, returning there later in the evening to play the old chestnut ‘My Life’.
Throughout the evening, she was accompanied by assured stand-up bass player Liz Draper and mandolinist and guitarist Ana Egge. The latter provided high harmonies and took a verse of ‘Our Town’, which closed the evening’s proceedings. Egge had provided the opening set which had included the hooky ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ and the impressive ‘Rock Me (Divine Mother)’ which ended with the chorus sung a cappella. There was also a country song called ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ which she introduced with some biography: born to hippie parents, Egge lived in a town of 50 people in North Dakota where her uncle ran a bar before she and her family headed down to a commune. That’s where the teenage Egge heard DeMent, and she sent her a cassette of her songs which piqued the older songwriter’s interest. Egge is not the only person to have her life changed by Iris DeMent; the Goo Goo Dolls famously named their evergreen power ballad after her.
There were songs in DeMent’s set written by her husband Greg Brown (‘Waycross, Georgia’) and with his daughter Pieta while their adopted daughter’s Russian lineage accounted for songs set to the poetry of Anna Akhmatova and, in the case of ‘The Cherry Orchard’, the drama of Anton Chekhov. It was apparently the first time DeMent had played ‘How Lucky’ live. Written by her good friend John Prine, she had to restart the song because her thumb was too small to keep up with the initial rhythm of the bass notes.
The world is a better place for having Iris DeMent in it. She articulates how idealism should triumph against insanity, and her songs are full of empathy and warmth. The Union Chapel might have been the perfect venue for such a superlative songwriter. She is welcome back anytime.
Nice review. While Greg Brown is Pieta Brown’s father, Iris is not her mother.
How Long is such a powerful tune and a wake-up call for those that have their heads in the ground. She is a treasure.
“There were songs in DeMent’s set written by her husband Greg Brown and with her daughter Pieta”
Unexpected that this false comment is still included in this review.
We’ve now amended the article stating that Pieta Brown is Greg Brown’s daughter with Iris Dement being her step-mother.