Iron & Wine

Sub Pop and Iron & Wine celebrated the 15th anniversary of Our Endless Numbered Days with the release of a newly expanded deluxe edition on CD/2xLP/DL worldwide on March 22nd, 2019. This version features eight previously never before heard demos and new artwork. Iron & Wine received its second Grammy nomination in two years as “Best Folk Album” for 2018’s Weed Garden. Their previous nomination was for “Best Americana Album” for 2017’s Beast Epic.

When the pandemic began, and the world shut down, so did the process of creating for Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam. In its place was a domesticity that the singer hadn’t felt in a long time, and although it was filled with many rewards, making music was not one of them. Reflecting on that time, Beam notes:

Iron & Wine - Ghost On Ghost (2013) {4AD CAD3306CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 262 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 247 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 4AD / Nonesuch | CAD3306CD
Indie Folk / Indie Rock / Indie Pop / Blues / Jazz / Soft Rock

After expanding his intimate indie folk sound about as far as it could go on the last Iron & Wine album, Kiss Each Other Clean, Sam Beam (and trusty producer Brian Deck) take a step back on Ghost on Ghost and deliver something less suited for large arenas and more late-night jazz club-sized. The arrangements on that album were stuffed with instruments and seemed built to reach the back row; this time there are still plenty of horns, violins, and female backing vocals in the mix, but they are employed with a much lighter touch. Working with jazz drummer Brian Blade and a standup bass and mixing together elements of country, jazz, indie rock, and soft rock, the album has a much more intimate feel that suits Beam's quietly soulful vocals much more naturally.

Despite having a title that suggests a new thrash metal direction, Sam Beam’s sixth album as Iron & Wine essays yet more romantic, Americana-tinged songwriting, and it’s cosier than ever. As Beam sings poetically in his goose-down voice, cadences resolve as contentedly as old married couples, even in songs of friction such as Bitter Truth. Call it Dreaming is the most robust thing here, and its emotional clarity – “For all the love you’ve left behind / you can have mine” – ensures it will soundtrack wedding photo slideshows for all eternity. But just as everything threatens to blur into a copper-coloured autumnal haze, Beam adds quirks to keep the beauty in sharp relief: the album’s most elegant vocal melody, on Last Night, is backed by the spartan, impetuous plink of violins and glockenspiel. These songs may be modest – none break the four-minute mark – and undemanding, but their sure-footed craft creates profound, 12-tog comfort.

Calexico and Iron & Wine first made an artistic connection with In the Reins, the 2005 EP that brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together. The acclaimed collaboration introduced both acts to wider audiences and broadened Beam’s artistic horizons, but it was the shared experience of touring together in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” that cemented their bond. Their metaphorical roads diverged in the years that followed, but they kept in touch and cross-pollinated where they could. But although they often talked about rekindling their collaboration in the studio and on the stage, it wasn’t until last year that their schedules aligned.

Sam Beam’s Iron & Wine have announced a new EP, Weed Garden, a six-track companion piece to last year’s album Beast Epic. Weed Garden includes “material that was part of the writing phase for Beast Epic, but for various reasons went unfinished,” according to a press release; the title refers to Beam’s decision to go “into the weeds” creatively to bring the songs to fruition. The new EP arrives August 31 from Sub Pop, just about a year after the release of Beast Epic.

This eight-CD collection contains all of Wanda Jackson's Capitol recordings from 1963 to 1973, including nine Top 30 country hits, The Box It Came In, Because It's You, Tears Will Be The Chaser For The Wine, Both Sides Of The Line, A Girl Don't Have To Drink To Have Fun, My Big Iron Skillet, A Woman Lives For Love, Fancy Satin Pillows and Back Then, plus ten unissued recordings and several songs that only appeared on singles.