"Iris DeMent released 'Infamous Angel' in 1992. Thirty years later, the album remains among the most singular and fully realized singer-songwriter debuts since the invention of that category in the early ’70s. It happened 'Infamous Angel' is close kin to a different sort of country music that was just then having a moment: specifically, country singer-songwriters, focusing on personal, but universal, loss and hope and favoring small acoustic combos. It may have been out of step with the mainstream, but 'Infamous Angel' arrived right on time."