Iron and Wine in NZ

On the Mystery Girl hotline we were already opening the Whiskey Jar when we found out that Iron and Wine’s bearded genius Sam Beam wanted to make his first ever visit to New Zealand. So you can imagine the celebrations following the news that he was also bringing an eight-piece band with him - featuring none other than past and present members of Wilco, Calexico, Lambchop, Califone and Sea & Cake. Crickey! – could there be a better all-star bent alt-country-roots-freaked-out folkin’ line up?

Friday 14th March 2008

Kings Arms Tavern - Auckland

Saturday 15th March 2008

San Francisco Bath House - Wellington

The many obsessed fans who have purchased his various albums will already know Iron and Wine is primarily the work of Florida native Sam Beam. His is lo-fi basement tapes found their way to the indie label Sub Pop and in 2002, the record company released 12 songs by Beam on a collection titled The Creek Drank the Cradle. It was followed by Our Endless Numbered Days, which some music critics chose for the best album of 2004 for its gentle, acoustic strums, spare rhythms and simple poetry. 2005 saw his most sublime release to date, the superb Woman King EP featuring dense opuses Gray Stables and Jezebel. Then of course there was delightful and hugely successful joint EP with Calexico - In the Reins.

His latest album The Shepherd's Dog succeeds in accomplishing a similar cathartic recasting of the artist's intentions. The arrangements are kaleidoscopic and rich. "White Tooth Man" rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while "Boy with a Coin," the album's first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody.

Steeped in southern lore, Iron and Wine's songs are crafted in the spirit of traditional murder ballads, with brooding tales of love and death, infidelity, and religion set against delicate melodies and beautiful harmonies. The band's music was featured on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Garden State

While many of us learned of Iron and Wine by way of Sam Beam's tender and spare rendering of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" on the Garden State soundtrack, those who dug deeper discovered a classic American tunesmith with a precocious musical signature. Songs like "Lion's Mane," "Jesus the Mexican Boy" and "Naked as We Came" are remarkable demonstrations of craft; musically memorable, lyrically evocative and casually atmospheric.

Iron and Wine is;
Chad Taylor [Sea & Cake]
Benny Massarella [Califone]
Matt Lux [Isotope 217]
Leroy Bach [formerly of Wilco]
Paul Niehaus [Calexico]
Patty McKinney
Sarah Beam
Sam Beam