Iron & Wine
Woman King
Sub Pop
2005
Rating: 7 man queens out of 10
More hushed folksy music from the new Cat Stevens of our generation, Iron & Wine. If you are at all familiar with his recordings, especially his last full-length “Our Endless Numbered Days”, then you have a good idea as to what this sounds like. Although not physically a continuation of those recording sessions, they certainly are in spirit, utilizing much of the same staff (specifically, Sam’s sister Sarah returns for her beautiful backing vocal duties). If you like those recordings them you will not be disappointed here, or at least I wasn’t.
Iron & Wine
Our Endless Numbered Days
Sub Pop
2004
Rating: 7.5 old calendars out of 10
Iron & Wine is Sam Beam, film school professor in Florida by day and amazing singer and performer by night. To call him this generation’s Cat Stevens might be somewhat apt, and a good basis on which to draw comparisons of this man and his ridiculously beautiful voice. Plenty or other comparisons are floating around out there - from Nick Drake to CSN&Y to Palace to Lou Barlow – and each of these have probably had a hand in influencing the songwriting of Beam. His songs are beautiful in their simplicity, where equal importance is placed just as much on the lack of instruments at times than an overabundance of them. His first album, “The Creek Drank the Cradle”, was a very even-paced affair, but this record finds Beam branching out a little – some drums and percussion here and there to speed the tempo up in places, but not enough so that it would alienate his already established fan base. Beam has more than proved that his first record was not just a fluke, a one-off by an unknown artist that sent those educated in his sound rushing to the store to purchase his album; instead, with his triumphant return and sophomore effort he’s telling everyone that he’s in it for the long haul, and for that I am extremely happy.
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.
