Iron and Wine
A supplement to your spinning circles
2005-03-24
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After spinning drunken circles to your bed at night, you rotate through your dreams
— one after another, each completely contrasting the last, but connected
still. This spins you right into your morning, which feels as seamlessly attached
to yesterday as your dreams. Now you’ve traded tossing and turning for whirling
and twirling around the tasks and objectives that make up your waking life. You
quickly check things off your list, and with each check you stretch out your arms
a little wider to slow your spin. This goes on until the only task you have left
is to drive home, open another bottle of wine and start all over again. Before
you can continue in your cycle you must, for a moment, be still. You want to plant
your feet on steady ground and blow the whistle on the race that is running by
you every day. Don’t worry; Sam Beam will do it for you. His gentle voice
will cradle your thoughts tight enough to keep you thinking straight until the
morning returns. Supplement your circles with the soft sounds of Iron and Wine.
Beef Iron and Wine is the name of a protein supplement that caught the eye of singer/songwriter Sam Beam and eventually became the manifestation of his musical personality, an interesting name befitting of an artist who will never bore the imagination. The intimacy in his songs, while typical of today’s growing folk scene led by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and the late Elliott Smith, is much more poetic, making it feel somehow more profound. Beam grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and now resides in Florida, which gives his music a southern tone and helps distinguish it from the rest of today’s indie-folk. For the most part, Iron and Wine is Sam Beam by himself, although for touring purposes the “band” is starting to acquire other members.
Although he picked up his first guitar at 15, music wasn’t Beam’s first profession. He earned a graduate degree from Florida State and spent some time working on movie sets as a grip and freelancing around Florida for Disney, of all places, before settling down with his wife and child and taking a job as a cinematography professor, sometimes teaching script writing.
“I don’t have to teach anymore, I’ve been lucky; but film is still a part of my life,” he explains. Film has also played a part in his music. He has been able to make three videos for his own songs and plans to do more.
“My friend’s dad in middle school had a great record collection,” Sam replied when asked how he got turned on to music. His early influences include older music, mostly African and blues, but he confessed that as a kid he and his friends would play more contemporary music together. “We played lots of Joy Division covers,” he said. He didn’t start recording until six years ago, when he found the old four-track recorder that later was used to record his debut album, The Creek Drank the Cradle. A strong biblical influence can be heard in this album, as well as every one since.
“Hey, I grew up in the Bible belt,” Beam said when asked about the influence that can be detected in Woman King, his new EP. “I’m not a religious person, but it was a huge influence in my life.” Some songs on the album reference Lilith and Jezebel, both female biblical characters who were branded as evil. This uncovers another theme for the new EP, which the title should make obvious.
“A few of my newer songs were about women characters, and I had some older unreleased stuff along the same lines, so it just made sense to put them together.” Beam explained, adding that the album is supposed to be “adverse to male posturing.”
Aside from an interesting theme, the six tracks on Woman King are some of the best stuff Beam has released in a prolific career. In less than two-and-a-half years he has released two full-length albums, The Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days, and now two EP’s, The Sea and the Rhythm and Woman King.
Many Iron and Wine songs have the tone of someone reflecting on the past, which, fittingly, is what Beam’s music tends to force one to do. Iron and Wine songs have a habit of getting stuck in your player for weeks on end, so if you’re in the “looking back” mood or if you just need to go back for no other reason other than to “stop the circles,” let the soft lullaby of Sam and his slide guitar take you. With the help of his sister, Sarah, Sam will start touring in April. Check www.subpop.com for dates and locations.
Beef Iron and Wine is the name of a protein supplement that caught the eye of singer/songwriter Sam Beam and eventually became the manifestation of his musical personality, an interesting name befitting of an artist who will never bore the imagination. The intimacy in his songs, while typical of today’s growing folk scene led by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and the late Elliott Smith, is much more poetic, making it feel somehow more profound. Beam grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and now resides in Florida, which gives his music a southern tone and helps distinguish it from the rest of today’s indie-folk. For the most part, Iron and Wine is Sam Beam by himself, although for touring purposes the “band” is starting to acquire other members.
Although he picked up his first guitar at 15, music wasn’t Beam’s first profession. He earned a graduate degree from Florida State and spent some time working on movie sets as a grip and freelancing around Florida for Disney, of all places, before settling down with his wife and child and taking a job as a cinematography professor, sometimes teaching script writing.
“I don’t have to teach anymore, I’ve been lucky; but film is still a part of my life,” he explains. Film has also played a part in his music. He has been able to make three videos for his own songs and plans to do more.
“My friend’s dad in middle school had a great record collection,” Sam replied when asked how he got turned on to music. His early influences include older music, mostly African and blues, but he confessed that as a kid he and his friends would play more contemporary music together. “We played lots of Joy Division covers,” he said. He didn’t start recording until six years ago, when he found the old four-track recorder that later was used to record his debut album, The Creek Drank the Cradle. A strong biblical influence can be heard in this album, as well as every one since.
“Hey, I grew up in the Bible belt,” Beam said when asked about the influence that can be detected in Woman King, his new EP. “I’m not a religious person, but it was a huge influence in my life.” Some songs on the album reference Lilith and Jezebel, both female biblical characters who were branded as evil. This uncovers another theme for the new EP, which the title should make obvious.
“A few of my newer songs were about women characters, and I had some older unreleased stuff along the same lines, so it just made sense to put them together.” Beam explained, adding that the album is supposed to be “adverse to male posturing.”
Aside from an interesting theme, the six tracks on Woman King are some of the best stuff Beam has released in a prolific career. In less than two-and-a-half years he has released two full-length albums, The Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days, and now two EP’s, The Sea and the Rhythm and Woman King.
Many Iron and Wine songs have the tone of someone reflecting on the past, which, fittingly, is what Beam’s music tends to force one to do. Iron and Wine songs have a habit of getting stuck in your player for weeks on end, so if you’re in the “looking back” mood or if you just need to go back for no other reason other than to “stop the circles,” let the soft lullaby of Sam and his slide guitar take you. With the help of his sister, Sarah, Sam will start touring in April. Check www.subpop.com for dates and locations.
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