Iowan folksinger Iris DeMent returns with her ambitious sixth album,
The Trackless Woods. Following up the warm-toned, Southern sounds of 2012's
Sing the Delta, DeMent takes an unusual turn, adapting 18 poems by 20th century Russian poet Anna Akhmatova to music using little more than her piano and tremulous voice. Additional strains of guitar, pedal steel, and dulcimer accompany these windswept, often tragic songs, which were captured over a period of five days by co-producer Richard Bennett in the singer's living room. Dark in tone and intimate in presentation,
The Trackless Woods is unique in DeMent's catalog. ~ Timothy Monger