On her transcendent new record, Workin’ On A World, Iris DeMent faces the modern
world — as it is right now — with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness, and
epidemic of violence and social injustice — and not only asks us how we can keep
working towards a better world, but implores us to love each other, despite our very
different ways of seeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer
spaces.

With an inimitable voice as John Prine described, “like you’ve heard, but not really,” and
unforgettable melodies rooted in hymns, gospel, and old country music, she’s simply
one of the finest singer-songwriters in America as well as one of our fiercest advocates
for human rights. Her debut record Infamous Angel, which just celebrated its 30th
anniversary, was recently named one of the “greatest country albums of all time” by
Rolling Stone, and the two albums that followed, My Life and The Way I Should, were
both nominated for GRAMMYs. From there, DeMent released three records on her own
label, Flariella Records, the most recent of which, The Trackless Woods (2015), was
hailed as “a quietly powerful triumph” by The Guardian. DeMent’s songs have also been
featured in film (True Grit) and television (The Leftovers) and recorded by numerous
artists. Fittingly, she received the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017.
Workin’ On A World, her seventh album, started with the worry that woke DeMent up
after the 2016 elections: how can we survive this? “Every day some new trauma was
being added to the old ones that kept repeating themselves, and like everybody else, I
was just trying to bear up under it all,” she recalls. She returned to a truth she had
known since childhood: music is medicine. “My mom always had a way of finding the
song that would prove equal to whatever situation we were facing. Throughout my life,
songs have been lending me a hand. Writing songs, singing songs, putting them on
records, has been a way for me to extend that hand to others.”

With grace, courage, and soul, Iris shares 13 anthems — love songs, really — to and
for our broken inner and outer worlds. DeMent sets the stage for the album with the title
track in which she moves from a sense of despair towards a place of promise. “Now I’m
workin’ on a world I may never see / Joinin’ forces with the warriors of love / Who came
before and will follow you and me.”

She summons various social justice warriors, both past and present, to deliver
messages of optimism. “How Long” references Martin Luther King, while “Warriors of
Love” includes John Lewis and Rachel Corrie. “Goin’ Down To Sing in Texas” is an ode
not only to gun control, but also to the brave folks who speak out against tyranny and
endure the consequences in an unjust world. “I kept hearing a lot of talk about the arc of
history that Dr. King so famously said bends towards justice,” she recalls. “I was having
my doubts. But, then it dawned on me, he never said the arc would magically bend
itself. Songs, over the course of history, have proven to be pretty good arc benders.”
Bending inward, DeMent reaches agilely under the slippery surface of politics. She
grapples with loss on the deeply honest “I Won’t Ask You Why,” while encouraging
compassion over hate in the awe-inspiring “Say A Good Word.” Album closer
“Waycross, Georgia,” encompasses the end of the journey, thanking those along the
way. As she approaches subjects of aging, loss, suicide, and service, an arc of
compassion elevated to something far beyond words is transmitted. The delicate
fierceness encompassed in the riveting power of her voice has somehow only grown
over time.

Stalled partway through by the pandemic, the record took six years to make with the
help of three friends and co-producers: Richard Bennett, Pieta Brown, and Jim Rooney.
It was Pieta Brown who gave the record its final push. “Pieta asked me what had come
of the recordings I’d done with Jim and Richard in 2019 and 2020. I told her I’d pretty
much given up on trying to make a record. She asked would I mind if she had a listen.
So, I had everything we’d done sent over to her, and not long after that I got a text,
bouncing with exclamation marks: ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A
World!’” With Bennett back in the studio with them, Brown and DeMent recorded several
more songs and put the final touches on the record in Nashville in April of 2022.
The result is a hopeful album — shimmering with brilliant flashes of poignant humor and
uplifting tenderness — that speaks the truth, “in the way that truth is always hopeful,”
she explains. Reflecting on the lyrics of the song “The Sacred Now” (“see these walls/
let’s bring ‘em on down / it’s not a dream; it’s the sacred now”), DeMent is reminded of
Jesus saying the Kingdom of God is within you and the Buddhist activist monk Thich
Nhat Hanh saying the rose is in the compost; the compost is in the rose. On Workin’ On
A World, Iris DeMent demonstrates that songs are the healing and the healing arises
through song.

High & Lonesome grew from a lively weekly bluegrass and country jam at Erin’s Pub. What began as a mix of concerts, open mics, and sweet (pie) prizes evolved into a dedicated house band featuring Daniel Banoub (guitar), Mark Finch (banjo), Matt Hender (upright bass), Dave Rowe (mandolin), and Lucas Rose (dobro). This crew brings plenty of joy to the stage, with their high-energy musicianship shining through a mix of classic and modern bluegrass tunes and instrumentals.

Graham Wells

Graham Wells is an Newfoundland and Irish traditional multi-instrumentalist and singer from St. John’s, NL. He completed an MA in Traditional Irish Music Performance at the University of Limerick in 2013. He first learned the accordion from his grandfather, Edward Walsh at the age of 6. In 1998, Graham introduced the C#/D tuned, two row button accordion to Newfoundland traditional music. This system has since been adopted by many notable Newfoundland accordion players including Aaron Collis, Billy Sutton, Fergus Brown-O’Byrne, Stan Pickett.

Graham was a founding member of the acclaimed traditional group “A Crowd of Bold Sharemen,” recording and arranging a seminal album of Newfoundland traditional music. Shortly thereafter in 2004, Graham joined the Juno award winning band, The Irish Descendants. He performed with the Descendants for the next 7 years. Graham embarked solo with the release of his first album in 2008. In 2010, Graham founded and organized the first Féile Seamus Creagh – a festival of traditional Irish and Newfoundland song, music and dance, which is now running in it’s 13th year.

Heather Patey is a fiddler, singer and dancer in St, John’s, having spent 15 years focusing on the musical traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador. She especially enjoys passing on the fun of Newfoundland music to young people, and has taught and performed at the Suzuki Talent Education Program, STEP Fiddlers, Young Folk at the Hall, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, and schools and youth groups in the St. John’s area. Often in company of her duet partner, accordionist Terry Goldie, she can lead a group of kids through the Lancers, share a beautiful ballad or a chorus shanty for everyone to sing, add traditional dance-music to the repertoire of student musicians, or join in any size of group for a rousing set of tunes. Always happy to bring authentic Newfoundland and Labrador material to ears and feet of all ages!

Harry Ingram was born and raised in Arnold’s Cove Placentia Bay, or as Ray Guy would call it, “That far greater bay”. Recitations have always been a core element of Harry’s upbringing, which he now performs in various venues. He’s a part of the popular “Stage to Stage” group and also a comedy recitation duo known as “The Liar’s Bench Show” with his cohort Ken Parsons. Harry writes his own original material with a published book titled “Don’t be Talkin’, however, he also enjoys keeping alive the works of greats such as John Joe English, Baxter Wareham and others. 

Raised in Bay de Verde, NL and influenced by his father Ray Walsh and the
singing and playing of his grandparents and extended family, Greg Walsh
became interested in music as a teenager and immediately took to learning
traditional songs and playing traditional instruments including fiddle, mandolin,
guitar, tenor banjo, piano accordion, bozouki, etc.
After moving to St. John’s in 1993 to attend university, he began frequenting
traditional music sessions and over the years went on to play, tour and record
with many groups including The Navigators, Irish Descendants, Foc’sle, Middle
Tickle and has appeared on hundreds of other musical projects, shows,
radio/television specials and events.
As a multi-instrumentalist and a singer of traditional songs, he has performed and
taught workshops around Newfoundland and Labrador, across Canada and
throughout Ireland with a variety of groups and as a solo performer.
A founding member of the Walsh Family Band, Greg is also a permanent
member of the Masterless Men (since 2007), the Corner Boys (since 2024) and
is a regular on the St. John’s traditional music session scene. He still records and
performs with a variety of groups and artists and currently resides in St. John’s,
NL where he works as Director of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and
Labrador.

Glen Tilley and Bill Rose share a deep love and passion for the music they create. Their repertoire, an homage to the great songwriters and tunesmiths who gave voice to a generation.

With stops in New York’s Greenwich Village, Liverpool, Los Angeles and a waltz across Texas, the duo cover a sweeping range including country swing, rockabilly, dazzling guitar instrumentals, folk, contemporary singer songwriter material, alt country and original compositions by Rose and Tilley.