Cover Story: (3) Our Town. Iris DeMent or Kate Rusby, American Midwest or South Yorkshire
May 26, 2021
May 2021 update: this was only the third instalment of our Cover Story series, one now stretching to around 70.
At the time, I was wondering aloud whether the place Iris DeMent had in mind when writing and singing about Our Town was her home town of Paragould, Arkansas, or Cypress, California, where she grew up. It was neither, as I seem to remember Bill Taylor pointing out.
DeMent based her song on some back-of-beyond Oklahoma dump whose inhabitants deserved better. I cannot find trace of the name of the town - maybe towns - that inspired her but this was how she described it in an NPR interview:
"I remember passing through this little town that was your typical dead town there in the Midwest, a lot of boarded-up windows, little white buildings with peeling paint, all the life had gone right on out of it.
"And that was the first time in my life that I felt a song coming on like it wasn't just me trying to make something happen."
On the other hand, there was never much doubt that when Kate Rusby applied her Yorkshire accent to the same song, she was talking about Barnsley. I loved both versions, leaning slightly towards Kate's, but others will and do disagree ...
But even that sarky putdown, way back in 1993, was in the context of a positive review. I had found, against my own expectation, much to admire in her album Infamous Angel.
DeMent, I concluded, suggested "a likeably unpretentious woman who can write with affection about real people and places, and think up real tunes".
One such song and tune was Our Town and that is the subject of this instalment of the new Salut! Live series, Cover Story. Put simply, do we prefer DeMent's superb original or the cover, also superb, by Kate Rusby?
[I wrote in 2017 that] I could and should research more deeply but have never been sure whether DeMent's simple tribute to her home town was inspired by Paragould, Arkansas, where she was born, or Cypress, California, where she grew up. The answer, incomplete, is in my introduction to this item.
Rusby, on the other hand, can only be singing - surely - about her beloved Barnsley. She makes it sounds as if she wrote it.
If I am honest, I am torn. DeMent's rendition of her own song tugs at the heart strings. There is nothing to fault.
But then Rusby would tear at the heart strings if she put the South Yorkshire yellow pages to music.
The YouTube audience heavily favours DeMent - [now] approaching five million visits against 500,000 or so for Rusby.
So I shall sit on the fence [the 2021 update is that I very slightly favour Rusby]. Two fabulous versions of the same wonderful song. Feel free to say what you feel.
A good song but everything about Kate Rusby's version - her voice, the arrangement - is better than the original.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | May 26, 2021 at 05:04 PM
Rusby's version wins by intergalactic proportions. TBH I thought De Ment's voice was awful.
Posted by: Jeremy Robson | May 26, 2021 at 06:07 PM
This is from Bill Taylor via Facebook bag offers a fairer comparison (when the piece first appeared I could only embed a live version by Iris). I have now substituted the studio version ...
From Bill: Is this what you're looking for? I still very much prefer Kate Rusby's interpretation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSX9PNRyyc
Posted by: Colin Randall | May 27, 2021 at 12:14 AM
Via the Salut! Live Facebook group
An apples and oranges comparison - so totally different.
The original is excellent, Iris DeMent has a remarkable voice and the accompaniment is outstanding.
Having said that, if I have to choose, then it must be Kate Rusby's version. I adore Kate Rusby. There is something so natural, so uncomplicated, yet so expressive, so emotive in her interpretation of the song. Of any song, for that matter. Simply heartwarming.
Posted by: Enid Buhler | May 27, 2021 at 03:46 PM
I prefer Kate’s vocals but I prefer the arrangement and backing on the original.
Posted by: Brian Appleby | May 27, 2021 at 03:47 PM
Kate’s version is an excellent cover. I like it a lot. However, you’ll never convince me it’s better than the Iris original. DeMent is a musical goddess to me (and I heard her version on first release on Philo, so it burrowed in to my internal earworm library long before Kate recorded hers).
Posted by: John Crosby | May 27, 2021 at 03:48 PM
Via Messenger
Great piece --I love both versions, but I like Kate Rusby's voice a bit more than Iris's. So interesting the way the essential theme/meaning of a song can transcend cultures and countries--the suffering of neglected and rural communities is a universal one in the post-modern world. Thanks for reminding me of what a great song this is--I haven't listened to it in a long time.
Posted by: Peter Obermark | May 27, 2021 at 09:20 PM
I like both of them. Rusby's vocal is prettier and more supple, and I prefer her arrangement, but she leaves out the cemetery verse and part of the poignancy of the song is that the singer is leaving her parents' graves behind and that they died before the town died.
Posted by: Sharyn Dimmick | May 28, 2021 at 05:02 AM
Both are excellent, if you want to hear another outstanding version it’s covered a little more up tempo by Trampled by Turtles, a bluegrassy folk band from Minnesota.
https://youtu.be/ch0J8FtMSA0
Posted by: Joey | April 10, 2022 at 01:27 AM
Nope. "...like an animal in distress" wasn't a putdown of Iris DeMent's voice. That's why it's so evocative, the implied pain, the loss of love. Her Arkansas accent, with its wailing tone, is perfect for the song, supremely nostalgic. But perhaps you have to be American and used to/fond of the many varied accents here and appreciation for the struggle our ancestors fought to wrest a small town life from certain forsaken parts of this country, with its droughts and distances, scorching summers and freezing winters. The song should never be sweetly pretty.
Posted by: Rachel | January 15, 2025 at 12:47 PM