Maggie's Farm

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Thursday, March 10. 2011

Let The Mystery Be

Betcha can't listen just once -


 


Posted by Bird Dog at 17:08 | Comments (40) | Trackbacks (0)

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Oh my - I haven't heard her wonderful voice for a long time. She's got that special "something" doesn't she?

Thanks for the music BD.
#1 Tom Francis on 2011-03-10 17:12 (Reply)
No.

She's a singing freaking adenoid, a nasal atrocity committed on the vocal arts, a (and this is no compliment) female Bob Dylan wannabe.

I'd rather hear fingernails on a chalkboard.
#2 Randy Rager (Link) on 2011-03-10 17:30 (Reply)
Hahaha. That's mean.
#2.1 BD on 2011-03-10 17:39 (Reply)
If I had a time machine, I'd use it to be mean to the child that was never told what a singing voice she didn't have.

Sometimes we have to be mean to one person to render a greater kindness to the rest of us.
#2.1.1 Randy Rager (Link) on 2011-03-10 17:48 (Reply)
Meself had to listen second time and yall got that cowgirl pegged, Rager.

The lyrics caught me though and i'll be listenin' to her adenoidal, cowgirl hoo and let the mystery be.
#2.2 Leag on 2011-03-10 18:07 (Reply)
Gee - must have had to pay your Federal taxes today huh? :>)

Actually, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the song.

Curious that.
#2.3 Tom Francis on 2011-03-10 19:36 (Reply)
Naw, I just have good musical taste, is all.

Anyone sounding like her whilst trying out for the junior high school choir in my hometown of Stilwell, Oklahoma, would have been sent packing pronto. By High School, we all knew what the standards were, and no one cursed with that sort of voice would have bothered.

Dylan sucks butt too, by the way. But I'll leave that one alone, I sense I've been offensive enough already.
#2.3.1 Randy Rager (Link) on 2011-03-10 23:12 (Reply)
Delusional.
You.
Sorry, I just have a good sense for personality disorders.
#2.3.1.1 Simon Cowbell on 2011-03-11 11:00 (Reply)
She sounds a lot like Victoria Williams. I like it.
#3 bill on 2011-03-10 17:41 (Reply)
Same violinist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vK7jitvJXI
#4 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-03-10 18:19 (Reply)
I love it! True all American down home country! Some of you guys are such snoots - this is just plain fun stuff. Nothing high brow about it.
Jay, Molly and Iris can sing in my parlor anytime. (and I am a trained vocalist)
#5 milabro (Link) on 2011-03-10 19:05 (Reply)
A little flaw and imperfection can be more charming and engaging than perfection.

Her dimples and cheery homey expressions make up for any vocal imperfections, in my view. For down-home country, the last thing you want is vocal perfection anyway.
#6 Bird Dog on 2011-03-10 19:17 (Reply)
Saw her at a small joint one time. She's a great artist but a bag of neuroses. Apparently her agent hadn't told her there'd be cigarette smoke in the bar. Oh, the horror. He/she also had told her she was going to have to fly on a plane the next day. Another horror. It was an evening of great music and apprehension. You just knew she was going to crack before the night was thru. I wrote it down to west coast liberal fragility.

I still love to hear her sing, minus the politics. I caught on to her shortly after I discovered her, when I figured her growing up in Los Angeles was kind of hard to square with the Arky/Okie personna she was peddling.

Artists! They do make you stop and wonder!
#7 steve boggs on 2011-03-10 19:18 (Reply)
So she should be called "Iris DeMented," Steve? ha!
#7.1 Big___Al on 2011-03-10 19:34 (Reply)
She's a great artist but a bag of neuroses

What artist isn't? I mean we've just all been through the Charlie Sheen show haven't we? :>)

We're all a bag of contradictions.
#7.2 Tom Francis on 2011-03-10 19:38 (Reply)
I enjoyed her performance, but I understand the criticisms. Here's one I pulled from a youtube version of another of her songs:

"JEE ZUZ! Look, I'm not being a smart-ass here...but really....this voice...is it not SHRILL and DISCORDANT? I mean, am I the only one here who thinks of fingernails on a chalkboard when she sings?"

That was great....
#8 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-03-10 20:04 (Reply)
Reminds me of a young Suzy Boggus, though not as pure a voice. Fun to listen to. Guess it's reasonable to assume that not all artists are as earnest and sincere as their image. I've loved Keillor for decades, and of course he holds most of what we believe in utter contempt.
#9 Paul on 2011-03-10 20:28 (Reply)
Is the voice genuine or schtick?
#10 LWS on 2011-03-10 20:40 (Reply)
Hey BD,

Apologies for being off topic or is it Iris's voice you like? (as opposed to the theme).

Iris is a gem but much better in a back-up singer role, IMHO...as in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8

Enjoy.

The Canuck

P.s. not expecting a reply comment to this one...either. Nor is it needed.
#11 Garry on 2011-03-10 21:22 (Reply)
BTW,

Always enjoyed your taste in music.
#11.1 Garry on 2011-03-10 21:46 (Reply)
John Prine - now there's a name I haven't heard in a while.
#11.1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-03-10 22:26 (Reply)
I was trying to think of who she reminded me of and then it came to me - Dwight Yoakum. Same singing style with that truncated nasal twang.
#12 Tom Francis on 2011-03-10 22:24 (Reply)
I like her --a lot --the voice takes ya back to the mountains when the mountains was only the Alleghenies --

She's got a youtube out, with Emmylou Harris singing backup, called "Our Town" --her own song, and kind of a love ballad to small town America. In it she grows up, marries, has her babies, buries her ma and pa, and so on. It's touching, tho i'm an easy touch.

Fans of the Coen Brothers will hear one vocal in the new film True Grit --and yep, it's her, singing an old Sunday meeting house spiritual, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arm".
#13 buddy larsen on 2011-03-11 00:23 (Reply)
Boo, yall's lying skill is improving but fer the fact; ain't a critter a walkin' that old.

Good lies take some polish and confidence.

Once i had a woman who growled like Missy Iris and i kept her long as she could bear.

Her growlin' oft wakened me with dark cantations unlike Missy Iris's light filled but she was novice.

So's spells didn't take nor stick.
#13.1 Leag on 2011-03-11 14:54 (Reply)
Great music!

That fiddle player sure looks like Jay Ungar (composer of Ashokan Farewell*--theme song for Ken Burns' Civil War series).

Thanks for posting this.

*The spam filter always blocks my posts if I try to add an URL, but go to YouTube and type in "Jay Ungar - Ashokan Farewell - with Aly Bain and friends" to get a beautiful version of that song performed by the composer and others.
#14 Jim on 2011-03-11 02:49 (Reply)
I'd always hoped she would do some more with JP - they both have those quirky character voices that you recognize right away that either don't quite fit the song, or end up defining it forever. She'll never be asked to do show tunes on Broadway, but I hate show tunes, so I'm fine with that. (If you get past the "is it real?" twang, she's actually a very precise and controlled singer - rarely an off-note or a flub.)

Maybe this'll make some of you appreciate her more: http://www.mojvideo.com/video-10000-maniacs-david-byrne-let-the-mystery-be/92683aa012270e2c9ff4
#15 bobby b on 2011-03-11 08:51 (Reply)
Great stuff. I liked her contribution to Prine's In Spite Of Ourselves. You high brows can sit on it.

After this you tube plays, the menu shows her with Prine singing the title track of the album and if you haven't seen Daddy And Them, it's a terrific film.
#16 Dose Amigo (Link) on 2011-03-11 09:29 (Reply)
....oh, if I had a critique, it's that that so many musicians in the room ought to kick a little ass intrumentally. This could have been just as good with a guitar and mandolin.

You wanna hear someone kick ass with a mandolin:

yarnmusic.net
#17 Dose Amigo (Link) on 2011-03-11 09:39 (Reply)
BD, you were right about not being able to listen to the song just once. I've given it a few good listens and if I liked it the first time, it's grown on me since. I've sent it around to a couple of friends and the first critique was very positive. The response I'm most interested in is from a singer I know, whose opinion will be informed by study. We shall see what her verdict is....
#18 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-03-11 10:09 (Reply)
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/iris-dement-our-town/56d1272afe1cf3267b5a56d1272afe1cf3267b5a-436256966137?q=youtube+iris+dement+our+town&FORM=VIRE1

((whew --almost too much --
#19 buddy larsen on 2011-03-11 10:44 (Reply)
When she sang in the John Prine special, I was put off for about 7 seconds, then I heard the expression behind the voice, and then the voice stood on its own. Maybe it's just a mountain persona, like Dylan's Western persona, I don't know, but it has a lot of heart. I could listen to most of her music all day. I suspect she's for real.
#20 Brent Bailor on 2011-03-11 12:23 (Reply)
i looked up the wiki --she's one of 14 children, raised in the very intense Pentecostal religion (tho her wiki says she has fallen away from that church). So, reading between those strong lines, i'd agree with you, she's probably for real.
#20.1 buddy larsen on 2011-03-11 14:35 (Reply)
Boo, i checked wiki which reads "She was raised in a Pentecostal household, but now identifies as agnostic." intense may qualify as a lie though a berry poor one on yall's part.

Ne'r'les', thanks fer the inside on her unbelief, so sad.

She is a good actress canting credibly well she believes in the divine.
#20.1.1 Leag on 2011-03-12 12:02 (Reply)
that you, on the basis of that wiki writer's one-word characterization of the womman's spirituality, believe it without a second thought, tells me that while she may or may not be gullible, Leag surely is.
#20.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2011-03-12 15:30 (Reply)
Actually boo, i find her own words enough to set her hide running fer the door.

Had a woman like that once, who i suggested she run and make it over the first ridge and she'd be free.

It was fun watchin' her go.

Point is yall are still a poor liar and poor loser.

Take courage and keep chippin', lad.
#20.1.1.1.1 Leag on 2011-03-12 15:42 (Reply)
whoee --y'all gettin' a little hostile, there, Leag --that ole flop sweat'll do it every time!
#20.1.1.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2011-03-13 05:56 (Reply)
Boo, it is amusin' yall find mirth hostile.

Thanks fer the grins.
#20.1.1.1.1.1.1 Leag on 2011-03-15 12:25 (Reply)
leag, of course it's understood that that one can go back in the mind to those times. But you must know that, as there ain't a critter alive that dumb --tho some will tell the lie that they are.
#21 buddy larsen on 2011-03-11 18:07 (Reply)
Lot's of people can sing. It's that unusual voice that sets one apart. I loved this song and found Iris's rendition quite unusual and don't understand the negative comments. Obviously Emmylou Harris (no slouch either) does her songs and sings with her. Take that music snobs.
#22 Chuck on 2011-03-12 11:02 (Reply)
Chuck,

Just saw your post. Well said. Iris has a purity and uniqueness to her voice and her renditions. As BD mentioned (somewhere): it's as if you opened the door to a rural church and "found" it happening (I paraphrase). She's intriguing. I don't like all her songs and think she sounds better in a duet role, in some cases. There seems to be a very timid soul being exposed here and it is almost painful to watch. When I feel that I close my eyes and listen.
#22.1 Garry on 2011-03-14 08:47 (Reply)

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