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UID:151473@kingstonhappenings.org
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250816T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250816T190000
DTSTAMP:20250812T145921Z
URL:https://kingstonhappenings.org/events/iris-dement/
SUMMARY:Iris DeMent
DESCRIPTION:On her transcendent new record\, Workin' On A World\, Iris DeMe
 nt faces the modern world — as it is right now — with its climate cata
 strophe\, 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 s
 eeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer spaces.
 \n\nWith 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” b
 y Rolling Stone\, and the two albums that followed\, My Life and The Way I
  Should\, were both nominated for GRAMMYs. From there\, DeMent released th
 ree records on her own label\, Flariella Records\, the most recent of whic
 h\, The Trackless Woods (2015)\, was hailed as “a quietly powerful trium
 ph” by The Guardian. DeMent’s songs have also been featured in film (T
 rue Grit) and television (The Leftovers) and recorded by numerous artists.
  Fittingly\, she received the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017.\n
 \nWorkin' On A World\, her seventh album\, started with the worry that wok
 e DeMent up after the 2016 elections: how can we survive this? “Every da
 y some new trauma was being added to the old ones that kept repeating them
 selves\, and like everybody else\, I was just trying to bear up under it a
 ll\,” she recalls. She returned to a truth she had known since childhood
 : music is medicine. “My mom always had a way of finding the song that w
 ould prove equal to whatever situation we were facing. Throughout my life\
 , songs have been lending me a hand. Writing songs\, singing songs\, putti
 ng them on records\, has been a way for me to extend that hand to others.
 ”\n\nWith grace\, courage\, and soul\, Iris shares 13 anthems — love s
 ongs\, really — to and for our broken inner and outer worlds. DeMent set
 s the stage for the album with the title track in which she moves from a s
 ense of despair towards a place of promise. “Now I’m workin’ on a wo
 rld I may never see / Joinin’ forces with the warriors of love / Who cam
 e before and will follow you and me.”\n\nShe summons various social just
 ice warriors\, both past and present\, to deliver messages of optimism. 
 “How Long” references Martin Luther King\, while “Warriors of Love
 ” includes John Lewis and Rachel Corrie. “Goin’ Down To Sing in Texa
 s” is an ode not only to gun control\, but also to the brave folks who s
 peak out against tyranny and endure the consequences in an unjust world. 
 “I kept hearing a lot of talk about the arc of history that Dr. King so 
 famously said bends towards justice\,” she recalls. “I was having my d
 oubts. But\, then it dawned on me\, he never said the arc would magically 
 bend itself. Songs\, over the course of history\, have proven to be pretty
  good arc benders.”\n\nBending inward\, DeMent reaches agilely under the
  slippery surface of politics. She grapples with loss on the deeply honest
  “I Won’t Ask You Why\,” while encouraging compassion over hate in t
 he awe-inspiring “Say A Good Word.” Album closer “Waycross\, Georgia
 \,” encompasses the end of the journey\, thanking those along the way. A
 s she approaches subjects of aging\, loss\, suicide\, and service\, an arc
  of compassion elevated to something far beyond words is transmitted. The 
 delicate fierceness encompassed in the riveting power of her voice has som
 ehow only grown over time.\n\nStalled partway through by the pandemic\, th
 e record took six years to make with the help of three friends and co-prod
 ucers: Richard Bennett\, Pieta Brown\, and Jim Rooney. It was Pieta Brown 
 who gave the record its final push. “Pieta asked me what had come of the
  recordings I’d done with Jim and Richard in 2019 and 2020. I told her I
 ’d pretty much given up on trying to make a record. She asked would I mi
 nd if she had a listen. So\, I had everything we’d done sent over to her
 \, and not long after that I got a text\, bouncing with exclamation marks:
  ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A World!’” With B
 ennett back in the studio with them\, Brown and DeMent recorded several mo
 re songs and put the final touches on the record in Nashville in April of 
 2022.\n\nThe result is a hopeful album — shimmering with brilliant flash
 es of poignant humor and uplifting tenderness — that speaks the truth\, 
 “in the way that truth is always hopeful\,” she explains. Reflecting o
 n the lyrics of the song “The Sacred Now” (“see these walls/ let’s
  bring ‘em on down / it’s not a dream\; it’s the sacred now”)\, De
 Ment is reminded of Jesus saying the Kingdom of God is within you and the 
 Buddhist activist monk Thich Nhat Hanh saying the rose is in the compost\;
  the compost is in the rose. On Workin’ On A World\, Iris DeMent demonst
 rates that songs are the healing and the healing arises through song.
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CATEGORIES:@Featured,@Newsletter,Music,Nightlife and entertainment
LOCATION:Assembly\, 236 Wall St. 3rd Floor\, KINGSTON\, NY\, 12401\, United
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