★★★★★
As the Americana movement that she helped to initiate back in the early-to-mid 90's took off in popularity, Iris DeMent for the most part watched from the sidelines. In the past sixteen years, the only album she released was 2004's Lifeline, a gospel record with no originals. That hiatus is over, thankfully, as DeMent returns with both her vocal and songwriting acumen intact on Sing The Delta...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Bringing it all back home: Arkansas dazzler's first original music in 16 years... From her down-home, straight-outta-Appalachia Loretta Lynn voice, to the rolling piano and Carter Family lilt of her country/gospel moorings, to songs that delve deep into the tapestry of family, home, and faith, Iris DeMent is a one-woman calling card for so-called "country music" to do some serious soul-searching...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2013-04-02
★★★★★
The Night I Learned How Not to Pray, Go On Ahead and Go Home and
the marvellous Before The Colours Fade are highlights, as Dement's
distinctive, vibrato-infused drawling voice soars and soothes. Her rolling
piano playing is pretty special, too. John
Prine, one of her early advocates, once said: "Iris's songs
talk about isolated memories of life, love and living...
- www.telegraph.co.uk
2012-11-12
★★★★★
There are moments on DeMent's first album of new material in 16 years when you wonder if the wait was worth it.
The youngest of 14 children born to a Pentecostal household, her voice - once as clear and true as an Arkansas church bell - has thickened, and there's a professionalism here that sometimes threatens blandness. But on the title track and "Out of the Fire", DeMent cuts through the sheen with a simplicity that reaches back through decades.
- www.independent.co.uk
2012-11-05
★★★★★
Sing The Delta is acclaimed country and folk singer Iris DeMent's first album of new material in 16 years. Religion remains a dominant theme, but these are personal, contemporary story songs that centre on DeMent's signature plain delivery, the gospel-soul horn arrangements and the occasional wailed vocal (as on the title track, a love song to the Delta)...
- www.nowtoronto.com
2012-10-22
★★★★★
"Let the Mystery Be", the first song on Iris DeMent's 1992 debut album Infamous Angel, is one of the more enduring songs about questioning religious doctrine on life and death, expressing a preference for the unknown versus the concrete answers that religions purport to have...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-10-08
★★★★★
Arkansas-born Iris DeMent recorded three wondrous albums between 1992 and 1996, with 1994's landmark My Life conjoining the spiritual hunger and moral outrage of the other two ? then her muse ran out. Eight years later, this country-gospel collection offers only one original. DeMent hasn't returned to Jesus ?"Once I started rereading the Book," she said, "I was reminded how many problems I had with it...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
Her heart cherishes Jesus' memory, but her mind, voice, and soul remain her own ("He Reached Down," "I've Got That Old Time Religion in My Heart").
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10