New In 2022

Yep Rock is issuing all three of the above albums on both LP and CD. The label has national distribution (my local independent stocks the label), but I don’t know about Amazon.

I learned of Iris from Merle Haggard, who recorded her devastating song "No Time To Cry". He was very effusive in his praise of her songwriting abilities (he was a "fair" writer himself ;-) . Other admirers of hers are Joan Osborne and Emmylou Harris, both of whom appear in videos of hers. Another is John Prine, with whom she collaborated and toured. She's a national treasure!

Broken Bells 

War studio Lps 

@bdp24 

 How's the SQ of Iris' VMP release? 45 RPM Audiophile wasn't too complimentary of that pressing. Wonder if the YepRoc will be different?

@slaw: Actually Steve, it wasn’t the pressing Michael Ludwig didn’t care for, it was the music. His review of the album was a stark reminder to me that Michael’s musical taste and mine overlap only peripherally. I am a singer/songwriter aficionado, Michael likes Jazz and Electronic music.

From the excellent booklet included in the VMP album, written by David Cantwell (author of Heartaches By The Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Songs, and The Running Kind: Listening To Merle Haggard. David has also written for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone Country):

"Iris DeMent released Infamous Angel in 1992. Thirty years later, the album remains among the most singular and fully realized singer-songwriter debuts since the invention of that category in the early ’70’s."

Robert Christgau characterized her "Let The Mystery Be" as "miraculous".

John Prine, on the album’s back cover: "Listen to this music...it’s good for you."

I actually feel sorry for Michael Ludwig; there’s something missing from his soul. No offense intended, Michael ;-) .

The VMP pressing is fine, perhaps done at QRP (Chad has done a number of LP’s for VMP). But the vinyl of the LP is splatter blue, which seems silly to me (I’m not a teenage girl ;-) . The VMP LP actually bears the name Yep Roc Records on it’s center label, so I assume the new LP will differ only in it’s pressing, not it’s mastering. Hope it’s black!

I also hope Yep Roc issues Irises 2nd album---My Life---on LP. It contains her utterly devastating song "No Time To Cry", as heart-wrenching a song as I have ever heard. The album was finally released on LP by Plain Recordings about ten years ago, and could use a reissue in a better pressing. Come on Chad, make room for it ;-) .

Thanks Eric!