Iris Dement sings Akhmatova

A powerful experience led Iris Dement into The Trackless Woods, the songwriter’s sixth album. Based on the work of celebrated modernist Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, the record is due out August 7 on her own FlariElla Records label. Dement discovered Akhmatova accidentally when she opened an anthology of Russian verse lent to her by a friend. Instantaneously, Dement felt directed.

„I read ‚Like A White Stone.'“ she tells Exclaim! „I’ll tell you the truth — I felt like somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, clear as day, ‚Iris, set that to music.‘ It did not come out of some conscious desire on my part; I had no plan to do anything like that. I said, ‚I don’t know how to do that,‘ and I heard, clear as day, ‚I will help you.‘ I know that’s not a very modern story, but that’s the story.“ / Sarah Greene, exclaim.ca