{"id":15789,"date":"2023-08-03T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=15789"},"modified":"2023-07-25T19:52:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T18:52:12","slug":"let-the-mystery-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2023\/08\/03\/let-the-mystery-be\/","title":{"rendered":"LET THE MYSTERY BE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Can a song-writer just  <\/strong>LET THE MYSTERY BE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick finds clues in the music of Iris De Ment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are as many ways to approach writing songs as there are people. So it only stands to reason that there\u2019d be at least a few songwriters out there, even fantastically gifted ones, who don\u2019t fit the model in terms of productivity and who can\u2019t keep up with the album-of-new-material-every-couple-of-years pace to which the music industry, critics and engaged music fans are accustomed. So come follow your art down sidetracks & detours to learn about a writer who waits to let the mystery be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If we seldom hear about that tension between external expectations and internal creative process, it\u2019s probably because most songwriters aren\u2019t nearly as open about such things as one Iris DeMent<\/strong><\/a>. (left) <\/em><\/strong>Twenty years after her lauded debut, Infamous Angel, and sixteen after her last collection of originals, The Way I Should, she released a new, devastatingly wholehearted country-blues album, Sing The Delta<\/em><\/a>, and spoke very openly to the press and the wider world in promotional interviews<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure over the past decade you\u2019ve been asked many, many times when you were going to write some new songs. Did you develop a way to deal with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I dealt with it by just not talking to anybody. I did maybe five interviews in the last ten years or more. Because I don\u2019t know the answer to it, you know. I don\u2019t know why I started writing in the first place. I really don\u2019t. My fear for a long time was that I was lazy. But I realized it wasn\u2019t that I was lazy. I mean, I made myself available but the deal just wasn\u2019t ready, wasn\u2019t there. I don\u2019t know. I finally made peace with that. It took me a long time, but I finally have fully accepted I\u2019m not in charge of that. So I just made the decision to live my life. I continued to sing. I had enough people who still wanted to hear me sing that I could live. And I\u2019ve continued to find a lot of joy and satisfaction in singing. So I just thought, \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s available to me right now. I\u2019m gonna go with that. And if the music comes, it comes.\u201d I always knew the songs would come. I knew that I might be 80 years old and nobody would care at that point. Seriously. That whole, like, career aspect of doing music I just let go of. I just let it come in its own time, and do what I can with it. And if that\u2019s it, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were you, and your audience, able to separate your singing from your songwriting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued to work quite a lot. And the rooms, there were people who\u2019d been listening to me for years and years who would say, \u201cGod, we\u2019d love another record.\u201d But overall I feel like I was feeling what I was doing, and people could tell that. There were enough people out there that were getting something from what I was doing, even though there weren\u2019t new songs, that it sustained me. I think, for me, it helped me dig more into the singing, and I think I became a better singer as a result of not writing for a while, to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad to hear you\u2019ve made peace with your songwriting rhythm. It seems like that looks pretty different for you than what people expect it to look like for someone who\u2019s a professional songwriter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, that really shook me up for a long time. I went through a phase of feeling really guilty about that. I felt a lot of stuff that I didn\u2019t enjoy. I felt like I\u2019d let a lot of people down. Then at one point I just let go of that: \u201cThat\u2019s made-up stuff. That\u2019s stuff that I\u2019m putting on myself or that maybe some people are putting on me, but I don\u2019t need that. What\u2019s the rule here? If you write a song you should write a song everyday? You should write a song once a year? Once every two years? Who\u2019s writing the rules here?\u201d And I just kind of freed myself from that. I think I started treating it more the way I would treat anything else in my life that I would tend to or care for. I don\u2019t necessarily do it every day. It\u2019s more like a part of my life. That\u2019s not to say I don\u2019t love it and feel very passionate and want to have the music happening more often. It isn\u2019t that. I\u2019ve just accepted the natural rhythm that seems to be mine, that comes with what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You sort of articulate that in songs like \u201cThe Way I Should\u201d and one of the new ones, \u201cMaking My Way Back Home.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I feel the music coming, I can get pretty committed to what I\u2019m doing and spend days and days trying to get a line or two. I don\u2019t feel like I have to do that every day of my life. I\u2019m a pretty good pie-maker. [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen people really struggle with the expectations placed on them by things like commercial publishing deals. Did you consciously choose a different route from that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made my choice not to allow that to happen to me. In fact, I was offered a publishing deal when I first moved here, and I had a number of people tell me I was crazy to not take it. I was starving to death and they were gonna pay me to write songs. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. Don\u2019t get me wrong. But when I looked at what I was aiming to do, my feeling for music, I was afraid that very thing would just sap it out of me. I don\u2019t want to ever feel like I\u2019m trying to please somebody when I\u2019m writing, you know? I think of it as a spiritual endeavor. When I go out and sing, I feel like it\u2019s a ministry. I don\u2019t think of it as a career. Although, thank heaven, I\u2019ve been able to live off of it. My whole mental approach to it doesn\u2019t fall into that realm. So I think I\u2019ve made decisions along the way to protect that. And maybe it\u2019s cost me some things. I don\u2019t know. It doesn\u2019t matter. I feel like I\u2019ve preserved my connection to the music and that spiritual kind of realm that matters to me, and I\u2019ve maintained a sense of peace within myself. And I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to continue to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like it might be difficult to deliver the kind of songwriting you do, to a schedule?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right. Apparently so. [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it therapeutic for you to write, but harder to share the songs and explain them to people? Or is it all therapeutic, or all hard?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I don\u2019t really know how to answer that. Probably all of the above. I mean, it\u2019s the whole process. I\u2019ve wondered sometimes would I write if I didn\u2019t have an audience, if I didn\u2019t know that there were a handful of people that I was going to reach with a song. Because I don\u2019t know about other people, but for me writing can be really hard work. I mean, there\u2019s a song on this record, I literally spent three days on the floor trying to get two lines. It was a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which song was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple lines in \u201cOut of the Fire.\u201d And I was so happy when I did, because once I heard \u2018em I just knew, \u201cYeah.\u201d They were at home inside me. So it can be a lot of work. If I didn\u2019t know that they would have a job to do, if I didn\u2019t feel confident that they had work to be done in the world, I couldn\u2019t do it. Then that hurdle of actually going out and singing, the first few times that\u2019s always hard. When you feel that close to something, it\u2019s still scary to go do something. It was scary to me today. It\u2019s always scary. But I think that\u2019s just \u2018cause I care about it so much. Maybe I\u2019m foolish, but I really feel that it matters, what I\u2019m doing. I feel like what I allow to come through me and what I\u2019m passing on, it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents leaned on music to survive, literally. I\u2019m not stretching the truth there, and I saw that. I saw evidence of that; my parents crying when they were singing in church. I mean, they leaned on music. So I have to feel that in me anytime I try to write or go sing. That\u2019s my job. I\u2019m throwing out a lifeline. And whether somebody else out there listening perceives it that way or not, that\u2019s for them. But there are people who come through that it is a lifeline, and music has been a lifeline for me. It might just be one person out there, but that\u2019s how I feel about it. That might be one reason I didn\u2019t write for a long time, because I think I have the work on such a high pedestal that it sometimes scares me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which of these songs, or parts of songs, came easily and werr there some you really had to wrestle with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cSing the Delta\u201d came pretty quick. \u201cHow Not To Pray\u201d was one I did over a long period of time. I always get the melody, and usually the title, like the hook or line or whatever you want to call it. I\u2019m pretty locked in that country tradition, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read that Sing The Delta was inspired by your stepdaughter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, actually my mom was pretty sick at the time, and Pieta [Brown]<\/strong><\/a> had called me. [ed. note: DeMent is married to veteran singer-songwriter <\/em>Greg Brown<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, (right)<\/em><\/strong>] I can\u2019t remember if I was going over to see my mom or something, but I was out on some gravel road out in southeast Iowa and I had a message or something from Pieta and she was saying she was coming down to Nashville\u2014no, Memphis, I think it was\u2014to make her record. Just that whole connection, you know. There was my mom in a hospital bed, and [the Arkansas Delta] was home to her. Emotionally it\u2019s always been home to me. And I just thought, \u201cOh, I just want to turn this car around and head south.\u201d I just started singing that song. It came to me instantly, singing the delta love song for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of love songs, there aren\u2019t really any love songs, in terms of romance, on this album.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have many of those. I never have. Here and there, but that\u2019s just never really been my thing. Another worry I\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because that\u2019s a lot of writers\u2019 bread and butter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what most people write about. And there\u2019s a lot to say about it. Maybe I just sorta have my own area. [chuckling] Maybe that\u2019s yet to come. But I think of all of them as love songs. Maybe that\u2019s the deal with me. I feel like anytime you care about something enough to write about it, whatever it is, there\u2019s a love relationship that\u2019s going on there. I think in a funny way any song is a love song, the best of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, yeah, the whole romantic thing. I don\u2019t know. That side of life is really interesting to me. I guess I can express that in other ways. I\u2019ve never really felt a great need to go to music for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you first came to Nashville, what did you think your career was going to be like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, I realize looking back I thought it would be like this. I mean, I got the call to write and sing. I knew that. I didn\u2019t get the call to sell millions of records. The voice didn\u2019t say, \u201cHey Iris, you\u2019re gonna go be a star.\u201d I didn\u2019t hear that voice. \u2026 All I knew was I was told to do music, to write and sing for people. If fifteen people hear it, if five hundred thousand people hear it, that\u2019s really not my concern. Never was. It still isn\u2019t. I feel like when I make a record, I love it and I care about it. I want people to hear it. But if I do my job and nobody does, I will sleep fine with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

please note logo <\/strong>The primary sourceS for  this piece was written for the print and on line media in title such as American Songwriter and Paste On-Line. Authors and Titles have been attributed in our text wherever possible<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images employed have been taken from on line sites only where  categorised as  images free to use.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a more comprehensive detail of our attribution policy see our for reference only post on 7th<\/sup> April 2023  entitled Aspirations And Attributions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I realize looking back I thought it would be like this. I mean, I got the call to write and sing. I knew that. I didn\u2019t get the call to sell millions of records. The voice didn\u2019t say, \u201cHey Iris, you\u2019re gonna go be a star.\u201d I didn\u2019t hear that voice. \u2026 All I knew was I was told to do music, to write and sing for people. If fifteen people hear it, if five hundred thousand people hear it, that\u2019s really not my concern. Never was. It still isn\u2019t. I feel like when I make a record, I love it and I care about it. I want people to hear it. But if I do my job and nobody does, I will sleep fine with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15794,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions\/15794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}