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.
Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day
Iris DeMent Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Looking out the window of my back door
If it keeps on raining I think the whole damn house is gonna float away
The alarm was buzzing at the break of dawn
My husband asking "Is the coffee on?"
And easy is gettin' harder every day
I'll drop the baby off at school at nine
Where I'll be staring at the clock just waiting to knock off another day
When supper's done we'll watch some TV show
Of a bunch of folks who've never heard of Idaho
Where easy is gettin' harder every day
I had a garden but my flowers died
There ain't much living here inside
Lately I don't know what I'm holding on to
Wish I could run away to Couer d'Alene
Take nothing with me, not even my name
'Cause easy is gettin' harder every day
We make love and we kiss goodnight,
He rolls over and he's out like a light
But I ain't mad about it, we got nothing to talk about anyway
The lights are blinking on the radio tower
I lie awake and stare at them for hours and hours
'cause easy is gettin' harder every day
I had a garden but my flowers died
There ain't much living here inside
Lately I don't know what I'm holding on to
I'll never make it up to Couer d'Alene
There ain't no chance of me forgetting my name
And easy, it keeps on gettin' harder every day
And it feels like easy, it just keeps on gettin' harder every day
The main theme of Iris DeMent's song "Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day" is the struggle of living an unfulfilling life. It is a melancholy ballad with a slow rhythm, which only adds to the feeling of sadness conveyed by the lyrics. The singer of the song is a woman who seems to be stuck in a daily routine that she despises. She is married, has a child that she drops off at school, goes to work, and comes home to watch mindless TV shows. She longs for Couer d'Alene, a place where she can start anew without any baggage, not even her name. The woman is tired, feels unfulfilled and disconnected from the world. Her garden died, and there is not much left inside her.
The repetition of the phrase "easy is getting harder every day" is a motif throughout the song. The phrase itself is a paradox, as easy and hard are both antonyms. The paradox suggests that things that were once easy are now incredibly hard for the singer. The woman's emotional exhaustion is prevalent throughout the song, as she prays for the rain to stop, stares at the flashing lights of the radio tower for hours, and wishes to escape her monotonous life. The song's melancholy tone and the singer's emotional delivery make it a powerful commentary on the struggle of living an ordinary life.
Line by Line Meaning
Standing barefoot on a cold wood floor
I am standing on a barefoot on a cold wood floor while contemplating my life.
Looking out the window of my back door
I am gazing through the window of my back door.
If it keeps on raining I think the whole damn house is gonna float away
The rain is so heavy that it feels like my house is going to be washed away.
The alarm was buzzing at the break of dawn
My alarm starts buzzing when it is time to wake up.
My husband asking "Is the coffee on?"
My spouse is asking me if I've made coffee.
And easy is gettin' harder every day
Everything seems to be getting harder every single day.
I'll drop the baby off at school at nine
At 9 am, I'll drop my child off at school.
And bust the lights to get to work on time
I'll put in a lot of effort to ensure that I reach work on time.
Where I'll be staring at the clock just waiting to knock off another day
I'll be waiting all day for the clock to strike, signaling that it's time to go home.
When supper's done we'll watch some TV show
After dinner, we'll sit and watch a TV show.
Of a bunch of folks who've never heard of Idaho
The show is about people who are likely unfamiliar with Idaho.
Where easy is gettin' harder every day
The difficulties of life keep increasing day by day.
I had a garden but my flowers died
I once had a garden, but it withered and the flowers died.
There ain't much living here inside
There is nothing much alive inside of me anymore.
Lately I don't know what I'm holding on to
These days, I'm not sure what I am fighting for anymore.
Wish I could run away to Couer d'Alene
I deeply desire to flee to Couer d'Alene and leave everything behind.
Take nothing with me, not even my name
I wish to leave with nothing, not even my name to connect me to this life.
'Cause easy is gettin' harder every day
It's getting increasingly harder to keep living without changes.
We make love and we kiss goodnight,
Before going to bed, my partner and I make love and kiss each other.
He rolls over and he's out like a light
My partner dozes off quickly and falls sound asleep
But I ain't mad about it, we got nothing to talk about anyway
I'm not upset even if we don't have anything to discuss anymore.
The lights are blinking on the radio tower
The radio tower's light is blinking.
I lie awake and stare at them for hours and hours
I spend lots of hours staring at the blinking lights without sleep.
'cause easy is gettin' harder every day
It's becoming difficult with each passing day, and it's not getting any easier.
I'll never make it up to Couer d'Alene
Going to Couer d'Alene or making that life-changing decision is not a possibility.
There ain't no chance of me forgetting my name
I cannot forget who I am, no matter how much I wish to forget.
And easy, it keeps on gettin' harder every day
Life keeps getting tougher with each passing day and it's not getting any easier.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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