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In 1996, after two critically-acclaimed CDs ( "Infamous Angel" and the intensely personal "My Life"), Iris DeMent released "The Way I Should", an album containing "Wasteland of the Free", a blunt indictment of the right-wing political and social agenda that she believes dominates in the US. The five-minute song denounces religious and political hypocrisy and corruption, government and corporate attacks on workers' wages, the great and growing gap between rich and poor, and the imprisonment of tens of thousands of unemployed and poverty-stricken American youth.
In 1998 in an interview with the World Socialist Web Site, DeMent explained that "Wasteland of the Free" was a difficult song to perform because it was so direct. "But I can't keep quiet about these things," she explained. "I don't have all the answers but if my songs make people think more deeply and figure out solutions that I'm not able to, then this is what it's for. If people get upset and it forces them to stop and think, then the song has done the job."
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