My Life

 (44 customer reviews)

I purchased this cd after hearing Ms. DeMent's duets with John Prine on "In Spite Of Ourselves". She "stole the show" from the likes of Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris and Patty Loveless, although Dolores Keane held her own on another plane. The first four tracks were wonderful and you instantly recognized that God grants unique gifts where and when you least expect it. Then track 5 "No Time To Cry" came on and, I have to tell you, Camus or Sartre couldn't have said it better. Life is relentless and Iris laments this fact in a way that makes even the most cynical of us shed a tear. Then you get to "Easy's gettin harder everyday" and you understand why a song writer with a gifted voice can say in minutes what psychologists and philosophers try to say in volumes. We pedestrians dream of such gifts - the voice and the words, but in ieu of that, the heavens have given us iris DeMent!

I have to admit that the first time I heard "No Time To Cry", it left me on the verge of tears. It is a an evocative, ethereal, and memorable excursion into the existential dilemmas of contemporary adulthood and how difficult it is to keep one's feelings and priorities in place in the face of the ice-cold indifference of the world. This wonderful CD is a treasure for anyone who loves the unique of country and folk music that Iris DeMent bridges so artfully. All of her music here is original and special, and she has matured from her beginnings to become a most singular and precious folk treasure. She mixes her deep natural religiosity with an awesome practicality in her verses, as in the opening cut "Sweet Is The Melody", and waxes sentimental in "You've Done Nothing Wrong" about a love affair that has failed because the two have grown in different directions. Iris manages to wring honest, beautiful and special qualities from each of her...Read more

Iris raised a lot of expectations following the success of her debut album, Infamous angel, which I've already reviewed. That album included classics such as Our town and Let the mystery be. This album is of a similar style and quality, but lacks a real classic song. Don't let that put you off - most singers never get songs that good in their entire career, and in any case all the songs here are excellent.

The songs here are very personal, something that should surprise nobody who is familiar with Infamous angel, but ever more so because Iris' father died during the time between the two albums. No time to cry is a song in which Iris explains that she's too busy to spend much time grieving for her father. Childhood memories is about just that.Iris wrote all but two of the songs, these being covers of Troublesome waters (Mother Maybelle Carter) and Mom and Dad's waltz (Lefty Frizzell). Given the personal nature of the album, these songs are entirely appropriate.If you...Read more