Our Town — a shared memory of home, time, and the quiet dignity of ordinary lives
There are songs that do not rush forward, that do not demand attention with drama or grandeur. Instead, they open a door and invite us to sit down, to listen, and to remember. “Our Town”, performed as a tender duet by Emmylou Harris and Iris DeMent, is one of those rare songs. It is not about spectacle; it is about belonging. About places that shaped us, people who knew our names, and the slow, almost unnoticed passage of time.
The song was written by Iris DeMent and first appeared on her 1993 debut album Infamous Angel. Years later, it found a new and deeply resonant life when Emmylou Harris invited DeMent to sing it with her on the 2000 album Red Dirt Girl. That album marked a turning point in Harris’s career — a fully realized embrace of introspection, memory, and collaboration — and “Our Town” sits near its emotional heart.
Important context first:
Red Dirt Girl was warmly received upon release, reaching the Top 5 on the U.S. country album charts and reintroducing Emmylou Harris to a new generation of listeners without abandoning those who had followed her for decades. While “Our Town” was not released as a charting single, it quickly became one of the album’s most cherished tracks — valued not for radio success, but for its emotional truth.
The song itself unfolds like a series of photographs pulled from an old drawer. There is no bitterness here, no anger — only acceptance. DeMent’s writing is deceptively simple, yet profound. She sings of growing up, leaving, and returning, only to realize that time has quietly changed everything. People have passed on. Children have become strangers. The town remains, but it is no longer quite the same — nor are we.
What makes this version so powerful is the pairing of voices. Iris DeMent sings with a plainspoken honesty that feels rooted in the soil itself. Emmylou Harris, with her unmistakable harmony, brings a sense of grace and distance — as if she is looking back across years, understanding now what once seemed ordinary. Together, they do not compete; they remember together.
The refrain — “But this is my town, and I love it still” — carries a quiet weight. It acknowledges loss without denying affection. This is not nostalgia that idealizes the past; it is nostalgia that tells the truth. It understands that home is not perfect, that memory is selective, and that love can exist alongside sadness.
For Emmylou Harris, “Our Town” fits naturally into a body of work that has long explored roots, family, and emotional inheritance. By the time Red Dirt Girl was released, her voice had gained a weathered beauty — a softness that makes lines about aging and change feel lived-in, not imagined. Singing alongside DeMent, she becomes both participant and witness.
There is also something quietly radical about the song’s perspective. It honors small towns and ordinary lives without romantic excess. It recognizes that meaning is not always found in leaving, achieving, or conquering — sometimes it is found in remembering where you came from, and accepting how it shaped you, for better or worse.
For listeners who have watched decades pass, who have seen familiar streets altered and familiar faces disappear, “Our Town” can feel almost personal. It doesn’t tell you how to feel. It simply holds up a mirror and lets memory do the rest. The song understands that the past cannot be reclaimed — but it can be honored.
In the end, “Our Town” is not just a song about a place. It is about time itself — how it moves quietly, leaving marks we only notice when we look back. In the hands of Emmylou Harris and Iris DeMent, it becomes a gentle hymn for anyone who has ever returned home and realized that the truest changes happened within.