QUOTES:

"Iris DeMent's music goes from her heart into yours and stays there for life." ~Jim Rooney

"Iris DeMent makes music that celebrates humanity’s efforts toward salvation, while acknowledging that most of our time on Earth is spent reconciling with the fact that we don’t feel so redeemed. Grounded in hymns, early country songs, gospel and folk, DeMent’s work is treasured by those who know it for its insight and unabashed beauty." ~  Ann Powers, NPR

"You can listen to most artists and tell who inspired them or where they tipped off from. There are very few artists that are so original that that is almost nonexistent. What I hear, when I hear Iris, is just a total original." ~ Marty Stuart, Music Hall of Fame performer and composer

“Iris Dement’s songs sound like heaven and earth meeting within one woman's searching sensibility.”~ Ann Powers, NPR

 BIO, Iris Dement:

On her transcendent new record, Workin' On A World, Iris DeMent faces the modern world — as it is right now — with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness, and epidemic of violence and social injustice — and not only asks us how we can keep working towards a better world, but implores us to love each other, despite our very different ways of seeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer spaces.

With an inimitable voice as John Prine described, "like you've heard, but not really,"  and unforgettable melodies rooted in hymns, gospel, and old country music, she's simply one of the finest singer-songwriters in America as well as one of our fiercest advocates for human rights. Her debut record Infamous Angel, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary, was recently named one of the “greatest country albums of all time” by Rolling Stone, and the two albums that followed, My Life and The Way I Should, were both nominated for GRAMMYs. From there, DeMent released three records on her own label, Flariella Records, the most recent of which, The Trackless Woods (2015), was hailed as “a quietly powerful triumph” by The Guardian. DeMent’s songs have also been featured in film (True Grit) and television (The Leftovers) and recorded by numerous artists. Fittingly, she received the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017.

https://irisdement.com/about

Ana Egge QUOTE:

“On first listen my impression was: if late-career Joni Mitchell didn’t go the jazz route as she did but immersed herself more in an original soulful sound, unlike Laura Nyro who did more covers, she’d sound like Ana Egge.” Americana Highways

BIO: Ana Egge:

Ana Egge is a singer-songwriter and apprentice luthier from Brooklyn, NY. She has released 13 studio albums, playing her homemade guitar. Egge’s music has been praised by critics for its honesty, vulnerability, and beauty. She was born in Canada, and raised in North Dakota, and has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. Egge is the subject of a 2015 documentary film, Bright Shadow. She has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, and on NPR to name a few. Lucinda Williams calls her “the folk Nina Simone.”

https://www.anaegge.com/bio/