Iris DeMent, who grew up singing gospel music in a deeply religious family but then discovered and was influenced by country, folk, and rhythm and blues, brings her eclectic vocal stylings to Harrisburg for a Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert on Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 7:30 pm at the Harrisburg Academy, 10 Erford Road, Wormleysburg, PA. The concert is also a WXPN Welcomes event.
DeMent has written that she remembers making up songs at the age of four or five. Playing outside she would make up a song about her mother's flowers. "I remember it hit me like, 'Wow! This is really neat! You can make up your own songs!' That stuck with me," she said. She now is known for writing "storyteller" songs about everyday experiences in simple language.
In 1986, after working at a series of waitressing and clerical jobs, she began to compose music again, honing her singing skills at open mic nights in Kansas City. She moved to Nashville and landed a recording contract, releasing her debut album, Infamous Angel, in 1992. It won near universal acclaim for her pure, evocative vocal style and spare, heartfelt songcraft. The album garnered enough attention that she moved from the independent Rounder label to Warner Brothers, which reissued Infamous Angel in 1993 and produced her second album, My Life, in 1994.
DeMent's 1996 offering, The Way I Should, marked a change with its rock-influenced sound and also its political subject matter in which she tackled issues such as sexual abuse, religion, government policy, and Vietnam. In 2000 she earned a Grammy nomination for her duets with John Prine. Her fourth album, Lifeline, came out in 2004.
In addition to Prine, she has sung duets with Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris and has been featured on the albums of many other performers. She frequently appears on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion and was in the 2000 film Songcatcher.
DeMent's voice has been described as "remarkable." It is said that the influence of roots legends like the Carter family is obvious, but she has infused into her musical heritage an urgent sense of what it means to be alive and awake in the contemporary world, creating a combination that is "affecting, sometimes chilling."
To learn more, visit www.IrisDeMent.com
Ticket Information
Concert tickets are $25 General Admission, $20 for SFMS members and $10 for students. Advance tickets are available through The Box at 717-214-ARTS or The Box Online (go to www.sfmsfolk.org/tickets).
This event is made possible with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts through its American Masterpiece initiative, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Cultural Enrichment Fund. The exclusive media sponsor is WXPN, listener-supported public radio at 88.7 or 99.7 FM. Additional support is provided by Your Name In Lights sponsors Russ and Paulette Matthews. For more information, visit the Susquehanna Folk Music Society web site at www.sfmsfolk.org
Concert Series
