dement

Former colleague Laura Dement wrote on Facebook, "Heartbroken is the only word I can use to describe how I feel. I really don't have words to describe the depth of the feelings."

“Workin’ on a World” is an album about DeMent’s ongoing quest to find her place, about passing the wisdom of the generation that came before her to the one that follows.

“It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that song saved my life,” DeMent said.

That idea is rooted deep in DeMent’s experience growing up in church, and it has inspired all of her albums to some extent, but especially the politically agitated “The Way I Should” and “Lifeline,” a collection of old hymns.

DeMent, 62, has been making herself useful for 30 years now.