Folk veteran Iris DeMent shows us the 'World' she's been workin' on

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/ [login to see] /folk-veteran-iris-dement-shows-us-the-world-shes-been-workin-on
"I really believe that I have been given an ability to deliver my songs," says the folk and country singer-songwriter Iris DeMent from her home in Iowa City, Iowa. "Not everybody's going to get them, but there's people that get them – and they need them." For over 30 years Dement has been one of the most distinctive and spiritually searching voices in roots music, work that has netted her a couple of Grammy nominations, though never quite making her a household name. Her newest album, Workin' on a World, is out today.

DeMent, born in Arkansas and the youngest of 14 kids, says she mostly grew up in the church, where she learned to ask a lot of questions about their faith by watching her mom – a questioning nature that shows up in her songs all the way back to her 1992 debut, Infamous Angel.

"Everybody is wondering what, and where they all came from / everybody is worried about where they're all gonna go when the whole thing's done," she sings on "Let the Mystery Be," "but no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me / I think I'll just let the mystery be."