DeMent was born in Paragould, Arkansas, the 14th and youngest child of Pat DeMent (1910–1992) and wife Flora Mae (1918–2011). Iris's mother had harbored dreams of going to Nashville and starting a singing career. Although she put those plans on hold to get married, her singing voice was an inspiration and influence for her youngest daughter Iris. DeMent was raised in a Pentecostal household. Her family moved from Arkansas to the Los Angeles area when she was three. While growing up, she was exposed to and influenced by country and gospel music. Singing at age five as one of "the little DeMent sisters", Iris had a bad experience when she forgot her words during her first performance, which caused her to avoid performing in public for some time.
DeMent was inspired to write her first song, "Our Town," by a drive through a boarded-up Midwest town at the age of 25. The song lyrics came to her "exactly as it is now," without need for re-writing, and she realized then that songwriting was her calling. "Our Town" was played during the closing scene for the final episode (July 26, 1995) of CBS's television series Northern Exposure. The song has been recorded by Kate Rusby, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher and Trampled by Turtles.
Her first album, Infamous Angel, was released in 1992 on the Rounder-Philo label and explored such themes as religious skepticism, small-town life, and human frailty. "Let the Mystery Be" has been covered by a number of artists, including 10,000 Maniacs and Alice Stuart, and was used in the opening scenes of the film Little Buddha. In the fall of 2015, a version of "Let the Mystery Be" from the Transatlantic Sessions became the musical theme for the opening credits of the HBO series The Leftovers, replacing the original "Main Title Theme" composed by Max Richter, and it would once again serve as the opening theme for the series finale.
In her second album, My Life, released in 1994, she continued the personal and introspective approach. The record is dedicated to her father, who died two years earlier. My Life was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category.
DeMent's third album, The Way I Should, was released in 1996. Featuring the protest song "Wasteland of the Free", it is DeMent's most political work. It covers topics such as sexual abuse, religion, government policy, and Vietnam.
DeMent sang the duet "Bell Bottomed Tear" as part of The Beautiful South's Much Later with Jools live special in 1997.
In 1998, the song "Iris" by the rock band Goo Goo Dolls was named after her. Singer and songwriter John Rzeznik had already written the lyrics to the song but was having a problem naming it. He opened up the LA Weekly and noticed that DeMent was playing in town and thought her name was beautiful and then decided to name it after her.
She sang four duets with John Prine on his 1999 album In Spite of Ourselves, including the title track. She appeared in the 2000 film Songcatcher, playing the character Rose Gentry and singing on the soundtrack as well. Her duet with Ralph Stanley on "Ridin' That Midnight Train" was the opening track on his 2001 album, Clinch Mountain Sweethearts: Ralph Stanley & Friends.
In 2004 she released Lifeline, an album of gospel songs. It included 12 covers and one original composition ("He Reached Down"). It was the first album she released on Flariella Records, a label she started herself and named after her mother. A shortened version of her rendition of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" was later used in the closing credits of the Coen brothers' film True Grit. On October 2, 2012, DeMent released her first album of original songs in 16 years, Sing the Delta.
DeMent has sung duets with Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris and is featured on the albums of many other performers. She sang the Merle Haggard song "Big City" on Tulare Dust: A Songwriters' Tribute to Merle Haggard. She has made frequent appearances on Garrison Keillor's radio show A Prairie Home Companion. DeMent contributed harmony vocals to "Pallbearer", a song from country artist Josh Turner's 2012 album Punching Bag.
In 2015, DeMent released The Trackless Woods, an album based upon and inspired by the words of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, on her own Flariella record label. She reunited with John Prine in 2016 for his second duets album For Better, or Worse and performed on two tracks. DeMent received the Americana Trailblazer Award at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
Childhood Memories
Iris DeMent Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
acting big behind the wheel of daddy's car
Playing church around the old piano stand,
you were quite a preacher and we sang so grand
I remember every night what we would say and do
"If you've forgiven me, then I've forgiven you".
And now when life begins to get the best of me
I reminisce these childhood memories
We built a raft and traveled all around the world
and stopped for penny candy at the corner store
You let me fly your kite but when I dropped the string
I thought my life was over, but Mama rescued me
When I was just a kid you taught my prayers to me
then you turned around and you told me about those birds and bees
Come what may, you've been endeared to me
because we share these childhood memories
Time, it moved so fast, those days are over now
We've all gone our separate ways, but still somehow
I often need to telephone and talk to you
to see if you remember things the way I do
It won't be too much longer 'til we'll be old and gray
winding up our travels here on life's highway,
but no matter where I roam I've got you here with me
when I reminisce these childhood memories
The lyrics of Iris DeMent’s song Childhood Memories paint a vivid picture of both the joyful and challenging aspects of growing up. The song starts off with a beautiful image of catching fireflies and putting them in a mason jar, which is a universal memory for anyone who grew up in the countryside. The second line talks about feeling grown up behind the wheel of daddy’s car, which also speaks to the yearning for independence that all children feel. The third line is about playing church, and the image of singing grandly around the old piano stand speaks to the joys of community and family bonding. The fourth line introduces a note of melancholy by saying the singer remembers “what we would say and do/‘If you’ve forgiven me, then I’ve forgiven you’” which implies that forgiveness was an important, but perhaps hard won, part of their family dynamic. Finally, the chorus repeats the phrase “I reminisce these childhood memories” as a way of setting up the rest of the song.
The second verse of the song continues the theme of joy and loss, encapsulated by the line “Time, it moved so fast, those days are over now/We’ve all gone our separate ways, but still somehow.” The verse describes a “raft” that the singer and their family built and traveled around the world in, which again speaks to the sense of adventure and exploration that can happen when you experience the world as a child. The line “stopped for penny candy at the corner store” also reinforces the sense of nostalgia, as candy from corner stores is now largely a thing of the past. The next couple lines of the verse describe a moment of great anxiety for the singer, when they lost control of a kite and panicked when it flew away. The mother swoops in to help, and is described as “Mama” which implies that the relationship between the singer and the mother is warm and loving. The final lines of this verse are a mix of innocence and the inevitable march towards adulthood – the mother teaches the “prayers” of childhood and then has the tough conversation about the birds and bees. The final verse brings us up to the present day with a bittersweet reflection about aging, and a strong sense of gratitude for the memories that have been created in the past.
Line by Line Meaning
Fireflies inside of a mason jar
As kids, we caught fireflies and put them in a jar to watch them light up the dark nights.
acting big behind the wheel of daddy's car
We pretended to drive our dad's car even though we couldn't reach the pedals.
Playing church around the old piano stand,
you were quite a preacher and we sang so grand
We played church and sang hymns around the piano, and you were such a good preacher, we felt like we were in a real church.
I remember every night what we would say and do
"If you've forgiven me, then I've forgiven you".
As kids, we would always say to each other 'if you've forgiven me, then I've forgiven you' before going to bed.
And now when life begins to get the best of me
I reminisce these childhood memories
Whenever life gets hard, I think back to these childhood memories to make me feel better.
We built a raft and traveled all around the world
and stopped for penny candy at the corner store
We built a raft and pretended to travel the world, stopping to buy penny candy from the corner store.
You let me fly your kite but when I dropped the string
I thought my life was over, but Mama rescued me
You let me fly your kite but when I dropped the string, I was devastated, but our mom saved me and made everything okay again.
When I was just a kid you taught my prayers to me
then you turned around and you told me about those birds and bees
You taught me how to pray when I was young, and then later on you gave me the 'birds and bees' talk.
Come what may, you've been endeared to me
because we share these childhood memories
No matter what happens, I will always feel affection towards you because we share these special childhood memories.
Time, it moved so fast, those days are over now
We've all gone our separate ways, but still somehow
Time has passed quickly, and we have all gone our separate ways, but somehow we still feel connected by our shared memories.
I often need to telephone and talk to you
to see if you remember things the way I do
I call you often to reminisce about the past and make sure we both remember things the same way.
It won't be too much longer 'til we'll be old and gray
winding up our travels here on life's highway,
but no matter where I roam I've got you here with me
when I reminisce these childhood memories
We will grow old and our lives will end, but no matter where I go, I will always have the memories of our childhood together with me.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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