Country meets Russia, courtesy of one of the most distinctive singer-songwriters in the US. Iris DeMent isn’t exactly prolific; there was a 16-year gap before her 2012 album Sing the Delta. Now comes an 18-song concept work, influenced by her adopted Russian daughter, in which she sets to music the poetry of the remarkable Anna Akhmatova, who suffered the horrors of the Stalin era but refused to leave Russia despite being named an enemy of the state. “I drink to the house, already destroyed, and my whole life, too awful to tell,” she writes in Last Toast. Thankfully, the lyrics are included; they are as memorable as DeMent’s sturdy and emotional country and gospel settings. Recorded in her living room, with her harsh-edged vocals backed by her own piano work and occasional help from a band including guitar hero Leo Kottke, this is a quietly powerful triumph.
