Lifeline

I can't get enough of this woman's voice. It has so much character. It tells stories as clearly as her lyrics do. Lifeline is so refreshing. She has gone back to old-time gospel, the root of folk music. She has made all of these songs listenable by adding her tremendous voice to their lyrics. Highly, highly recommended.

Few singers can so honestly find and lay bare the emotional core of a song as Iris Dement can. Her strong yet sometimes wavery voice cuts through all artifice, and what is left is so real that it can be painful to hear. I'm a tough guy, but she can reduce me to blubber in seconds. Some Iris fans might shy away from "Lifeline" because of its apparent religious themes and content, but there is little dogma or proselytizing here. In fact, I believe that it is the hard core Christian, hoping for the usual reassurances about how "saved" they are, are more likely to be disappointed than the average listener. For the most part these songs, as delivered by Iris, are complex and nuanced, based in a common human need to make a spiritual connection to the universe. This probing reaches its zenith on "Sweet Hour of Prayer," a deeply moving song in which Iris explores almost every angle of that age old question "Why am I here?" Her performance of the song is a soliloquy of astonishing power. Bottom line, don't let the religion scare you away. I'm an agnostic, but after listening to this album several times it has become one of my favorite Iris records.