I came of age in the 60's, so it's been difficult for me to muster much enthusiasm for popular music written after the golden age of rock and roll ended abruptly in 1970 with the break-up of the Beatles.
I mean, who compares with Lennon and McCartney, Dylan, Brian Wilson, the Everly Brothers? Or the King?
There have been exceptions. I love Thomas Lauderdale and his incomparable "little orchestra", Pink Martini, based right here in Portland. And just a few years ago, while listening to A Prairie Home Companion, I stumbled across another marvel of singing and songwriting --Iris DeMent.
The song I heard, sung as only Iris DeMent would sing it, was a Tom T. Hall tune about injustice and the "rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer" and "bathing my soul in the sun" before moving on. I was instantly hooked --by the voice, by the performance, by the message. Shortly after, I downloaded a bunch of Iris DeMent songs, most her own creations, and I've been a fan --a real fan-- ever since.
Friday night I saw Iris perform live at the Aladdin Theater. It's difficult to come up with the words to describe the experience. Suffice it to say that I sat enthralled for nearly two hours while Iris accompanied herself first on grand piano (who knew?) and then on guitar. Iris DeMent is a singular talent in the much over-hyped over-commercialized world of music. No one else sings like she sings, or writes songs quite like hers, songs that combine delightful melodies with heartfelt lyrics and intricate phrasing. Iris DeMent is authentic. She touches an audience like no other performer I've heard.
The crowd at the Aladdin seemed to agree. The sold out house gave her two standing ovations, the first bringing her back for two more songs including "Our Town", the song she claimed was the first one she wrote that she felt was good enough to sing in public. (Here's a YouTube version of it with Emmylou Harris.)
What does Iris DeMent have to do with taxes? Well, although most of her songs are introspective, she does project "progressive" sensibilities (as in the Tom T. Hall song above and on her album The Way I Should.) She seems to identify with the little people* rather than the movers and shakers. Were she a politician, I doubt that she would look too kindly on sales taxes or sin taxes or state sponsored gambling to fund programs to benefit the poor and the overlooked in American society.
Put it this way: If I were running for President, I'd prefer Iris DeMent to Jon Bon Jovi as my musical entourage.
(*Wasteland of the Free --3rd verse
We got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' pay
but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage
and If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your job
to some third-world country 'cross the sea
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free)
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