''My Life'' is the second album released by singer-songwriter

Iris DeMent Iris Luella DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and musician . DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel. Early life DeMent was born in Paragould, Arkansas, the 14t ...

. Released in 1994 on

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, it peaked at number 16 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Heatseekers Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is rad ...

chart. The album was dedicated to her father, Patric Shaw DeMent, who died in 1992.

Critical reception

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' ranked ''My Life'' as the 3rd best album of 1994. Writing in ''Spin'',

Eric Weisbard Eric Weisbard is an American music critic known for founding the Pop Conference, which is hosted annually by the Museum of Pop Culture (formerly known as the EMP Museum). He also organized the conference for many years. Career Weisbard serves a ...

described the album as "...unbreakable gentleness as a modern epiphany about rural values." The album was nominated for the

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1991 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. In 2007, this category was renamed Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album. As ...

at the

37th Annual Grammy Awards The 37th Annual Grammy Awards were presented on March 1, 1995, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Bruce Springsteen was the night's biggest winner with 4 awards, including Song ...

Track listing

All songs by Iris DeMent except as indicated.

Side one

#"Sweet Is the Melody" – 3:41 #"You've Done Nothing Wrong" – 4:22 #"Calling for You" – 3:18 #"Childhood Memories" – 4:38 #"No Time to Cry" – 6:49

Side two

#"Troublesome Waters" (

Maybelle Carter "Mother" Maybelle Carter (born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument". It ...

, Ezra J. Carter, Dixie Deen) – 5:15 #"Mom and Dad's Waltz" (

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Frizzell released many songs that charted ...

) – 2:37 #"Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day" – 5:01 #"The Shores of Jordan" – 3:18 #"My Life" – 3:30

Personnel

*Iris DeMent – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmony vocal, piano on "My Life" * Richard Bennett – acoustic guitar, electric guitar *John Catchings – cello * "Cowboy" Jack Clement – acoustic guitar *Charles Cochran – piano, keyboards *

Stuart Duncan Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo. Life Duncan was born in Quantico, Virginia, and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band. He ...

– fiddle, mandolin *Mark Howard – acoustic guitar *

Roy Huskey, Jr. Roy Milton Huskey (December 17, 1956 – September 6, 1997) was a prominent United States, American upright bass player in country music from Nashville, Tennessee. Huskey performed alongside musicians such as Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Johnny ...

– upright bass *

Kenny Malone Kenny Malone (August 4, 1938 – August 26, 2021) was an American drummer and percussionist. Life and career Malone was born in Denver, Colorado. From the 1970s onwards, he was a prominent session musician in folk, country and many other acoustic ...

– percussion *Pat McInerney – drums *Phil Parlapiano – accordion on "You've Done Nothing Wrong" *

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in ...

– dobro *Pete Wasner – keyboards, piano * Joy White – harmony vocal on "Childhood Memories" * Linda Williams – harmony vocal on "The Shores of Jordan" *

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

– harmony vocal on "The Shores of Jordan"

References

{{Authority control 1994 albums Iris DeMent albums Warner Records albums