News

Iris DeMent and the Lost Soul of Liberalism By Stephen F. Noll She sang in-between speeches at the first Clinton inauguration — “like crackers in the meatloaf,” she later modestly told reporters. “How could a nice girl like that get invited to the Rose law firm victory party?” I said to myself. “Must be the Arkansas connection” (she was born there). Then I thought again. It’s more than that: folk singer Iris DeMent represents the lost soul of liberalism. The…

Online Service Provider of Dallas and Fort Worth and the Homepage of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

To her staple of love-and-loss songwriting, Iris DeMent has added deeper musings on politics and social hypocrisy. She plays Tuesday in San Juan Capistrano By John Roos, Special to the Times Los Angeles Times Monday January 19, 1998 Orange County Edition Calendar, Page 2 Singer-songwriter Iris DeMent understands the value of good old-fashioned storytelling. With her stirring, slice-of-life tales, she has gained the admiration of peers including Nanci Griffith, David Byrne, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe,…

  August 19, 1997 TRIBUTE HONORS RODGERS’ DEEP INFLUENCE by Tony Norman “The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute.” Various Artists (Egyptian Records) ***1/2 stars Most music fans don’t need a tribute album to point them in Jimmie Rodgers’ direction. The hard-playing, hard-yodelling “Father of Country Music” is revered wherever folks can gather enough soul to play music on back porches by the light of the moon. Long nicknamed “The Singing Brakeman,” Rodgers managed to record seven years’ worth of…

  August 17, 1997 Musicians honor a father **** by Rick Mitchell JIMMIE Rodgers, the first “Father of Country Music,” would have been 100 years old on Sept. 8. This tribute, due Tuesday on Bob Dylan’s new Egyptian Records, celebrates Rodgers’ enormous influence on 20th-century American music from country to folk, blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Rodgers, who was born in Mississippi and spent his last years in Kerrville, was best-known for his “blue yodels.” These featured sly and bawdy…