Brown Wedding
Last November, Iowa-based singer/songwriter Greg Brown married his way to a deeper level of interest within the local music community when he exchanged vows with local folk hero Iris DeMent — right here in Kansas City, no less. It’s not that he didn’t have fans here before, though last fall’s show with DeMent was his first in the city proper. He’s been a folk and roots-music luminary for years, and his latest, the gritty, bluesy Milk of the Moon, deservedly made a lot of last year’s best-of lists. Like DeMent’s, Brown’s music has the elusive ability to make listeners feel as if he’s talking just to them.
But DeMent has always been someone whom fans, especially local ones, care about deeply. There’s something about her stage presence, her willingness to take stands and the way her own career began right here at open-mic nights that make people say things like “Oh, I hope things are going well for her.”
After establishing that the married couple is happy, gossiping DeMent fans have moved on to wondering how Brown turned out to be the guy. DeMent has played with Merle Haggard, John Prine and the Holmes Brothers, whom she joined onstage at the Grand Emporium. She’s even acted with Aidan Quinn. She didn’t marry any of them.
Casual, relaxed and friendly about every other subject, Brown is intensely private about his marriage, saying firmly, “I’m not going to say anything except I’m married and I’m happy.” But he’s always been open about his respect and esteem for DeMent’s music. It’s not surprising that one of her loveliest recent releases, her rendition of Brown’s “The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home,” came from last year’s Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown. (It’s equally telling that the press release announcing their marriage mentioned that Brown had been singing DeMent’s “When My Morning Comes Around” at his own shows.)
The tribute disc, a benefit for the Breast Cancer Fund, showcases Brown’s music in completely new ways, with Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco and Brown’s own daughters, Pieta, Zoe and Constie Brown, adding their own spins to his music. Brown explains, “My only input into the project was that I named some singers that might be involved. I certainly mentioned Iris as a singer I would love to have on there. I was real pleased with the way the record came out. There’s a real tender quality to [it].”
Brown’s tale of that song’s origins says a lot about his own roots, and also drops hints about why DeMent, who, like Brown, has deep country and gospel roots, might have chosen it.
“I’m living on my grandparents’ old place in southern Iowa,” he explains. “I built a house here, and I just moved down a little bit ago. When I was a kid down here, it seemed like everybody in the family played music. I remember we used to sit around here and be able to pick up the Grand Ol’ Opry, too — Grandpa always liked to listen to that on WSM on Saturday nights, and you’d often hear a Jimmie Rodgers song on there sung by somebody.
“As I came along and started growing up and exploring American music on my own, I bumped into the music of Jimmie Rodgers right away again,” he continues. “He just had a spunk to him, you know, and when you listen to his songs, there’s a real spirit and cheerful quality, kind of a rough-and-ready quality in the face of his own personal circumstances. Somewhere along the way, I’d read the story of when he died [of tuberculosis] in New York in 1933, and of there being this train that took his body back to Meridian, Mississippi, for burial. People would go out along the tracks to pay their last respects, doff their caps and maybe say a prayer or something as the train passed. That image always haunted me, and I wrote that song one afternoon.”
DeMent’s version brings to life the grief and tradition in Brown’s song. “It just kills me to hear Iris sing that song. It’s just about more than I can take,” Brown says. “She does it so beautifully. Of course, Iris could sing the newspaper, and I’d probably have to sit down.”
Recently DeMent announced that she would stop performing while the war in Iraq rages on, telling a crowd in Madison, Wisconsin, that she felt that playing live would trivialize the tragedy of the conflict. Although her decision invoked a few sighs among fans hoping a performance of her “Wasteland of the Free” might help them through their own turmoil, most reactions so far have been supportive, taking the form of expressions of concern and the hope that she’s doing all right.
Brown’s show, however, is definitely on. For the Lawrence date, Brown says, “My friends Karen Savoca [vocals, keyboards and percussion] and Pete Heitzman [guitars] will be there. I did Milk of the Moon with them.” His love of Jimmie Rodgers and traditional music might surface in the show, but he hesitates to commit. “I just recorded another record, an album of traditional folk songs for Trailer Records, a label in Iowa City run by David Zollo,” he says. “I love those old folk songs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I pull out a few of them, but usually when I do a show, I’ll do some things from various albums and some new songs. I never know actually what I’m going to do myself, but it’ll be a variety of this and that.”
As he sings, he might find himself aware of a few twinges of possessiveness heading his way, subtle signs of fans beginning to claim him as their own. After all, if he’s DeMent’s husband, chances are he’s got to be all right.
