Iris Dement wraps her unique voice around life's deepest themes.

When Iris DeMent released her first album, Infamous Angel, in 1992, she didn''t take the easy way out. Instead of opening the album with something safe--say, something about a broken heart--she begins with a quirky song about spirituality. And remember, this was before Joan Osborne sang "One of Us" and made heaven safe for secular musicians:

"Some say once you''re gone you''re gone forever/and some say you''re gonna come back/Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour/if in sinful ways you lack/Some say that they''re comin'' back in a garden/bunch of carrots and little sweet peas/I think I''ll just let the mystery be..."

Overriding the potentially controversial lyrics was DeMent''s voice. Originally released by Rounder Records, Warner Bros. bought the rights to the album and re-released it a year later. And you can bet it wasn''t because the songs on the album were sure-fire hit material. While there''s a definite folk-country feel to the way the music sounds, the lyrics frequently are at odds with what we''ve come to expect from that genre.

In addition to "Mystery," Angel included several other songs about spiritual faith (including the title track) and songs that reeked of homesickness for rural life. There''s only one song on the album, "Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart," that has much to do with the usual pop music subject of romance.

The songs on Angel are philosophical. The songs on DeMent''s second album, 1994''s My Life, are personal. The album came a year after the death of her father, and the feeling of loss cuts through almost every track. Although there are break-up songs on the album, one gets the feeling that the song that most clearly defines My Life is "No Time to Cry:" My father died a year ago today.../Well, I stayed at home just long enough to lay him in the ground/and then I caught a plane to do a show up north in Detroit town/because I''m older now and I''ve got no time to cry/I''ve got no time to look back, I''ve got no time to see/the pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me..."

Two years later, when DeMent put out her most recent album, The Way I Should, the source of her inspiration had shifted to the political. She opens the album with a gesture of defiance, from the very first lines of the album opener, "When My Morning Comes Around": When my mornin'' comes around, no one else will be there/so I won''t have to worry about what I''m supposed to say... She then proceeds to say some very harsh things.

First, in "There''s a Wall in Washington," she blasts a warmongering nation that thinks a monument is any sort of replacement for a father, or a husband. In "Wasteland of the Free," she lashes out at a bourgeois consumer society: "Living in the wasteland of the free/where the poor have now become the enemy/Let''s blame our troubles on the weak ones/ Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy/ Living in the wasteland of the free..." With "Letter to Mom" and "Quality Time" she rips into parents who don''t pay enough attention to what happens to their children.

But if DeMent''s lyrics are worth listening to, it''s her voice that makes them compelling. Singer/songwriter John Prine, with whom DeMent recorded the duet "In Spite of Ourselves," describes it as "a voice like one you''ve heard before--but not really." It''s a description that''s right on the money. It''s a timeless voice, a voice that''s rooted in the ancient, keening cries of mourning women, trained around a campfire in the Ozark Mountains, and produced in a Nashville music studio 50 years ago. It''s a voice that can bleed with pain or burn with anger. It''s somehow harsh and sweet and whiny and lyrical all at the same time. And for all those reasons, it''s a voice that compels a person to listen.

Iris DeMent appears on Saturday, 7:30pm, at the Henry Mello Center, 250 E. Beach, Watsonville. Singer/poet/storyteller Judy Henske opens the show. $20. 479-9421.