Artist · chart history
Iris Dement
Solo artist Paragould United States
Iris Dement is an artist from Paragould. Iris Dement has 12 chart appearances on 8 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Our Town”, which appears on 7 lists with a best position of #269. The station that charted Iris Dement most often is WYEP (Pittsburgh, PA), with 5 appearances.
Iris DeMent sings like the back porch is still standing and somebody has to keep the light on. Born in Paragould on January 5, 1961, she plays guitar and writes her own songs, and her music draws on the plainspoken end of American roots, folk, country and gospel, all of it carried by a high, unvarnished twang that doesn't bother pretending to be anything but itself.
Her 1992 album Infamous Angel holds "Our Town", a slow, homespun song that makes the Nashville hit factory sound very far away indeed.
She has recorded for Warner Bros. Records, collected 2 Grammy nominations, and in 2017 received the Americana Trailblazer Award.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Iris Dement on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Our Town | 7 | #269 | – | – | |
| 2 | Let the Mystery Be | 4 | #271 | – | – | |
| 3 | Wasteland of the Free | 1 | #1349 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Iris Dement as a guest.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 398 | Let the Mystery Be | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s |
| 2025 | 422 | Our Town | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s |
| 2024 | 344 | Let the Mystery Be | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years |
| 2020 | 862 | Our Town | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2019 | 457 | Our Town | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 |
| 2019 | 457 | Our Town | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 |
| 2009 | 269 | Our Town | WYEP 913 Essential Songs |
| 2009 | 271 | Let the Mystery Be | WYEP 913 Essential Songs |
| 2004 | 716 | Our Town | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) |
| 2001 | 347 | Let the Mystery Be | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1349 | Wasteland of the Free | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1706 | Our Town | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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