An Evening with Iris Dement

To stand out in a sea of singer-songwriter wannabes and to be a trailblazer in the genre, a person's vocals must sound wholly organic. In singer-songwriter Iris DeMent's tone, there's screeching and wildness but also a purity. She has said she always tried to emulate her mother's voice and also the preacher's wife from her hometown church. These vocals went straight to her heart. She hasn't released a solo work since 2015's The Trackless Woods, the third album on her own label, but she has started to work on a new studio album, so it's not out of the question that she would debut some new songs at tonight's show. (Laura Morrison)