BIO
Iron & Wine is a stage name picked up by the American song-writer and performer Samuel Beam born n Columbia, South Carolina. His grandmother used to play piano in a country church. His mother was deeply fond of music-writers and singers, while his father liked Motown. When Beam grew fourteen years old he received his first guitar that he started to play locked in his bedroom. This circumstance was a great trouble to the rest of the family finding it hard to sleep, which made the boy do it as quiet as possible. The habit to write and lay songs in the bedroom has never died and remained with Sam up till today.
It all started with the recording of the four-track demo tape to be distributed among Beam’s friends. Sam was happy to one day have it brought to the hands of the Sub Pop officials, who decided to issue the record officially. That was the Iron & Wine’s debut release, named The Creek Drank the Cradle and delivered in 2002. The record was a revelation of inspiring acoustic guitar play and sweet voice that was uttering beautiful texts deserving to be called true poetry. Having borrowed an element or two from folk, Sam loaded his music with amazing melodies and established a new form of rock music breaking the cannon and definitions of this genre. This release paved him the way to many venues in the USA where Sam delighted the crowds with his live performances. Yet he never forgot to visit the studio and make regularly new records. Thus, 2003 saw him release the The Sea and the Rhythm EP, and a year later, the fresh long player under the title Our Endless Numbered Days. Beam was loyal to the concepts he disclosed at the beginning of his artistic career. His songs were the research of morality, as the musician often touched upon the good of the human nature.
In 2005, Iron & Wine touched the stores with a very remarkable full-length record, Woman King, a profound study of the woman’s character. All the six compositions included into the album were the descriptions of a woman in this or that role. Musically, the new record was also different from its predecessors. Acoustic guitar received the support from the electric one, while the banjo sound grew more and more distinct. Besides, the making of Woman King involved Sam’s sister, Sarah, who recorded several vocal parts of her own. Samuel Beam continued his musical experiments with his 2007 effort, The Shepherd’s Dog. There, the core was the rhythmic section composed by a great variety of percussive instruments. In two years, listeners were happy to receive another gift from Iron & Wine. That was a brand new studio album named Around the Well. Sam’s fans were very glad with this product, another collection of top quality folk-based songs, again with the easily recognizable acoustic guitar and Beam’s touching vocals. Although, the format of the Iron & Wine works does not seem make them outstanding best sellers, they definitely pose a great interest to those who prefer proficient music and pays much attention to the lyrical component, too.
Around the Well review
