This month's Curmudgeon Column examines the otherworldly folk music of IrisDeMent, Greg Brown, RufusWainwright & DomFlemons
Iris DeMent was one of the most distinctive voices in the 1990s—a lyricist who inspired John Prine to write the liner notes for her 1992 debut album and a vocalist who inspired Merle Haggard to say, “She’s the best singer I’ve ever heard.” Prine would later record four duets with her, and Haggard would record her greatest song, “No Time To Cry,” with DeMent on piano.
In common usage, however, folk music is any music rooted in old-fashioned acoustic instruments and decades-old sounds, no matter how new and personal the lyrics, no matter what other instruments are added in support. In its narrowest definition, it refers to music based on the sound of Southern Appalachian balladeers and string bands. Strum an acoustic guitar steadily as you sing, and someone is bound to call you a folk musician.
In those chorus lyrics, she suggests that the recipe for keeping our politics healthy is the same as doing the same for our music: don’t get trapped in the transient moment; become a bridge between what “came before” and what “will follow.” On the other hand, the album also includes “The Sacred Now,” a folk-rock anthem with Bennet’s jangly electric 12-string guitar.
If DeMent is an underappreciated folk-music legend, her husband is even more so. Greg Brown has released 29 albums, all on small labels and all featuring his rumbling baritone voice on unfailingly brilliant songs. His compositions boast a mix of wit and poignancy, of vernacular conversation and gem-like aphorisms, very much like Prine’s. If Brown is less well known, it’s because he never released a major-label album and stubbornly stayed home in Iowa rather than moving to Nashville.
It wouldn’t be accurate to claim that Avett improves on Brown’s original versions. But it is true that these new versions are more accessible. Avett’s friendly, off-handed tenor and vanilla guitar rhythms are welcoming, where Brown’s irony-drenched baritone and knotty arrangements can be intimidating. And Avett offers not only Brown’s best known songs but also overlooked deep cuts .
But with the mission accomplished, the band began to splinter. Justin Robinson, at heart a rock’n’roller, left first to make a solo album. Rhiannon Giddens had too much charisma, too much talent and too many interests to stick with the original game plan. She pursued a variety of artistic risks, some of which did not pay off and others paid off brilliantly, especially her two recent duo albums with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi.
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