Welcome Back, Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent burst on the mainstream in 1995 with a now-classic recording The Way I Should. Produced by Randy Travis, it featured some incredible songs like "The Way I Should," "When My Morning Comes Around," "Wasteland of the Free" and "There's A Wall in Washington," sung with incredible passion and emotion, and accompanied by some of the best session players in Nashville.

Her voice is a little too twangy for some people, of course, but to me it's one of those unmistakable voices, like Alison Krauss,' that rise above the clutter and demand to be heard. Nobody cuts through to the heart and soul and the deep poignancy of the human condition like Iris does.

It turned out that The Way I Should was her third record. Each of the first two had contained more eloquent confessional songs like "My Life,""Sweet Forgiveness" and "Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day." Iris imbues each song with such passion and immediacy that people assume they're autobiographical. The latter is set in Idaho and Iris reports that people are always saying to her,"So, you're from Idaho...."

Who knew at the time that The Way I Should would be her last record of her own material for almost 17 years, until the release of Sing the Delta. Apparently Iris had a monumental case of writer's block. But thank goodness that has been overcome because, make no mistake, Iris is a treasure.

And so here, remarkably, out of the blue, is Sing the Delta. To be honest, I expected to be disappointed, as I was disappointed by her last record, Lifeline (2004), which turned out to be a collection of old-time songs that Iris learned from her mother. If you know Iris, "songs my mom taught me" is a perfect reflection of who she is, but it didn't make for great music, not like her own songs.

Sing the Delta, by way of contrast, is the full Iris. These are her songs. Not her mom's, not anybody's but hers. The Iris of The Way I Should, the Iris of "My Life," after 17 years in the desert. Like all of her best songs, these are confessions, reflecting the kind of thoughts that most of us keep private but that Iris hangs out there for all to hear.

Like "The Night I Learned Not to Pray," about losing one's faith, a subject she's sung about before, and that her fans know in general to be not a work of fiction but an expression of Iris' true life experience. Well, except the story line here is that her baby brother fell down a flight stairs, cracked his head, and died despite Iris' prayers on his behalf, that part I believe to be fictional. When the boy died, it became "the night I learned not to pray/God's gonna do what God wants to anyway." Somebody is going to come up to Iris and say, "I'm sorry about your baby brother...."

Sing the Delta is basically 1 up-tempo song and 2 ballads, 1 and 2, 1 and 2. For me, the record revolves around the ballads (plus "The Night I Learned How to Pray), though the up-tempo numbers keep things moving a bit and that's a good thing.

The title track is a love song to Dixie, "Mornin' Glory" is a love song to a flower garden, "If That Ain't Love" a love song to her dad, all featuring lilting melodies and occasionally soaring but always passionately sung vocals. Amazingly, Iris is in terrific voice here as if it were 1997 or 1998, as if she had never been away. And the dominant instrument here is Iris' crisp, old-fashioned piano, like grandma used to play. Like I said, this is the full Iris all the way.

In fact, this may be her best record ever and her best vocal performance. I have to say there's nothing here with the power of "The Way I Should" or "When My Morning Comes Around" or the pathos of "Sweet Forgiveness." But in hindsight, her political commentary on The Way I Should seems to lack to passion and the commitment of her confessional songs, and all of these are confessional.

In any event, Sing the Delta has just displaced Kathleen Edwards' Voyageur as the record of the year so far in 2012. If you're not familiar with Iris, you can find out if she is your cup of tea on YouTube, of course. There's a version of "A Whole Lotta Heaven" with an incredible ensemble including Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg and Bill Frisell on guitar,  and Phil Cunningham (Aly Bain's alter ego) on accordion. And the title track, "Sing the Delta" is there, with a message by whoever downloaded it. Welcome back, Iris, it says. Amen to that.