Iris DeMent, past and present.

I agree, Iris is an aquired taste, I like her uniqueness, voice and material.

Also an aquired taste is Rosalie Sorrels

Heard her first on the Nod to Bob compilation (terrific album)

In the late-90’s a very long-time friend of mine (we met in "home room" our first day of 7th grade, in September of 1962---in what was then referred to as Jr. High, now called Middle School) told me his wife---knowing I had kept up with "modern" music, unlike her husband (who was deep into Surf and other instrumental music genres, and remains so to this day, being a member of a fairly-well known "masked" combo, their music available on Yep Rock Records) asked me for a recommendation of a current female artist to listen to.

I didn’t know the wife all that well, and recommended Iris’ My Life. In retrospect, I suppose I should have instead suggested Lucinda, or perhaps even Joan Osborne or Alanis Morissette. The feedback I received was that the wife found Iris to be rather melancholy, an appraisal with which I belatedly understood and appreciated. I had long ago come to accept and adopt that view of life as a given (I watched in horror as my mother’s brain was eaten by cancer when I was 14-15 years of age).

I’m even more grim now, which is why my best friend is Johnny Walker ;-) . But my outlook could be considered sunny compared with that of Emitt Rhodes, with whom I worked briefly in 1997---in the band that backed him for his first live appearance in a quarter-century---at the Poptopia Festival in Los Angeles, and subsequent recordings in his studio in Hawthorne, right across the street from his his parents house, where he recorded his fantastic debut album. If you buy only one album this year, make it that self-titled record. It came out the same year as McCartney’s debut, and is FAR better.

Performing Emitt's music was so ironic; that debut album is so joyful, yet Emitt himself was (by 1997) so the opposite. He's out of his pain now (he died in 2000), but thanks to recording his music will live forever. Do yourself a huge favour and get his debut album. For the musicians in the audience: Emitt told me drummer Jim Gordon---of Derek & The Dominos reknown---was the best musician he ever employed (on his second and third albums, I believe). I wasn't insulted: Jim is a role model of mine.

Oops, Emitt died in 2020, not 2000.