Iron & Wine
Sat, Sep 16, 7:30 PM Heineken Stage Stage
Talk during an Iron & Wine performance, and youll miss some of the most elegant, beautiful and dark music being created today. I&W main man Sam Beam sings in a crisp whisper that sounds as old as the hills, and his guitar picking is understated and lovely. This serene sound delivered some dark tales with poetic flourish on the first two I&W albums, The Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days. Papa died smiling, wide as the ring of a bell, Beam sang on the sublime Sodom, South Georgia. Perhaps afraid of becoming a one-note act, Beam created two very different recordings in 2005, suggesting that Iron & Wine would be a big, broad vehicle to express a number of different variations on the basic sound of his voice and guitar. The Woman King EP paired him with producer Brian Deck for a fuller set of songs that fixated, celebrated and was flummoxed by its titular subject. The creative percussion, a Deck trademark, was driving, and some electric instruments particularly Beams electric guitar on Evening on the Ground gave the recording further drive. Beam bounced back later that year with yet another recording, In the Reins, a spirited collaboration with Arizonas Calexico.
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