The last time Sam Beam took to the ACL studio stage was more than two years ago, when he joined Calexico for part of an epic 90-minute taping and delivered songs from their 2005 collaboration In the Reins (Overcoat Recordings). Then, Beam was still playing the dusky balladeer, just beginning to find comfort with Iron & Wine’s popularity. Looking back, the Calexico collaboration foreshadowed where Beam wanted to take his own work: jamming, expansive compositions that came to fruition on last year’s The Shepherd’s Dog (Sub Pop).
While the album struggled to find the balance between Beam’s contemplative verses and the ambitious arrangements that incorporated more styles and rhythms than could be contained, Iron & Wine has since honed the jam sessions on the festival circuit and become an impressive force live. Add to that the intimacy of the ACL studio, which, unlike last year’s ACL Festival set or December show at La Zona Rosa, allowed for full appreciation of the quieter passages.
Accordingly, Beam opened last night’s set by himself, harmonizing with sister Sarah and gently strumming “Each Coming Night” from Our Endless Numbered Days. Beam’s voice was astoundingly clear, his demeanor increasingly loose throughout the show. The band gradually gathered through the opening numbers, steel guitar joining for “Resurrection Fern,” piano added on “Sodom, South Georgia,” and Sarah’s fiddle bent through the effects pedal to give “Peace Beneath the City” a bluesy swamp swirl. Finally, with the full eightpiece band behind him, Beam switched to electric guitar and Iron & Wine suddenly shifted into funkier jam territory with the dual drum kit thrust of “Woman King,” which sprawled into an almost eight-minute segue with “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog).”
Though the band was relaxed between songs, the members’ concentration while playing was almost overbearing in its intensity. Still, the precision of the sound couldn’t be argued: textures overlapped, weaving in the surreal psychedelics of steel guitar and melting into the African percussion of “House by the Sea.” “Upward Over the Mountain,” from The Creek Drank the Cradle, was given a surprisingly upbeat lilt and bounce before the band exited and Beam closed with the meandering narrative of “The Trapeze Singer.”
Returning for an encore with the full band, “Love and Some Verses” may have best melded Iron & Wine’s newfound eclectic textures, delivered with a strange but effective hybrid of Southern rock, Tex-Mex accordion, and flashes of island rhythms. Following “Boy with a Coin,” Beam ended the night where he began, playing “A History of Lovers” from In the Reins. Altogether, both Beam and Iron & Wine have grown immensely even since last year, and Beam has never seemed more comfortable performing.
This article appears in August 22 • 2008.
