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Grammy-nominated Americana / folk singer-songwriter Iris Dement was born in Paragould, Arkansas on January 5, 1961. After the Dement family moved from Arkansas to Los Angeles, California when she was three, Iris Dement became increasingly inspired by her mother’s love of music and singing. She began her career at a young age when she performed with several of her siblings as The Little Dement Sisters, but didn’t start writing songs until she was 25. Her debut album, Infamous Angel, was released in 1992 and received universal critical acclaim. The album’s “Let the Mystery Be” has been covered by several artists including 10,000 Maniacs. Several years after the album’s release, “Our Town,” the first song she ever wrote, was used on the final episode of the popular TV series Northern Exposure. Signing to Warner Bros. Records, she released her sophomore album, My Life (1994), which climbed to number 16 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album. After the release of her The Way I Should album in 1996, Iris Dement left Warner Bros. and took a break from recording her own albums and collaborated with iconic singer-songwriter John Prine, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, and appeared in the film Songcatcher (2000) as well as appearing on the film’s soundtrack. Iris Dement returned to her solo career in 2004 with the album Lifeline, which was an album of gospel favorites released on her own label, Flariella. She continued to collaborate with other artists including Merle Haggard, Steve Earle, Josh Turner, and Emmylou Harris. In 2015, she returned with Sing the Delta, her first album of original material in 16 years. The acclaimed album was followed by The Trackless Woods (2015) and Workin’ on a World (2023).
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