Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank The Cradle (Sub Pop, 2002)

Iron & Wine
The Creek Drank The Cradle
Sub Pop
2002

Rating: 8.5 big dippers out of 10

Iron & Wine is the work of one man, Samuel Beam - get to know that name, because if his output continues down the same path as this album, we’ll have the makings of the Nick Drake for this generation. Well, either Beam or Damien Jurado - perhaps we can have some sort of wrestling or boxing match to decide the true bearer of the title. But that is another story altogether, and not really relevant to this review.

Iron & Wine come from Miami, Florida, where Beam is a cinematography teacher at a local college by day, creator of hauntingly beautiful music by night. This album was written, performed, produced, and recorded entirely by Beam in his house. Apparently, there was two albums worth of stuff sent into SubPop, which was then whittled down to this release of 11 tracks. The only instruments used are his voice, guitar, and a little slide and banjo. What’s missing here? No drums. I can’t tell you the last time I listened to a record with no drums on it and actually liked it, much less loved it as I do this one.

Beam’s voice comes across as the Americanized version of Gary Lightbody, known for his work with Snow Patrol and The Reindeer Section. But the music falls much more in line with something done by Lou Barlow, be that Sebadoh or Sentridoh or whatever. And the whole affair lends a nod of the head towards the patron saint of this type of music, Nick Drake, who has influenced a countless number of men to become singer-songwriters, and even a few of them to actually be good at it such as Iron & Wine here.

Hopefully this is just the beginning for Iron & Wine, and many more great things will follow. I personally would like to hear the rest of those songs not released by Sub Pop, because if they are anywhere near as good, they will certainly be worth hearing.