The Iron & Wine concert was canceled Friday night because of the impending snowstorm, but that did not stop me from indulging in his latest album, The Shepherd's Dog. Because I have listened to Sam Beam - known by his recording name Iron & Wine - for years, his music is hardly unfamiliar. Nevertheless, The Shepherd's Dog, like his former albums, is open to endless interpretation during each listen.
Actually, the word "listen" does not fully capture what it means to take in an Iron & Wine album; Beam's works seem just as dictated by the visual senses as by the aural. Each song ties into the next to evoke a dream-like feeling, allowing seemingly disconnected images to come together into one piece.
Beam's lo-fi compositions - particularly on the earlier albums, The Sea and the Rhythm EP and Our Endless Numbered Days - have led critics to describe him as a "Southern artist." This claim may be somewhat accurate; Beam grew up in South Carolina and regularly worked on his grandfather's farm. The sounds of the South, particularly the banjo and steel guitar, pervade nearly every one of his songs. He has spent much of his life in the Southeast, graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's degree in art.
This artistic background is reflected in Iron & Wine songs, as they feel something like impressionistic paintings, giving fleeting images of bygone lovers or southern landscapes. To restrict his music exclusively to the South would be a mistake, though, especially when listening The Shepherd's Dog, which opens up with a refreshing mix of old and new sound from the first track until the last. Beam's past collaboration with Calexico, the Tucson-based Latin-influenced band, can be heard in songs like "Lovesong of the Buzzard." Accordion, steel guitar and upright bass are all shared centerpieces. But even more distinctive are the African sounds heard in "House by the Sea," which mixes multiple guitar parts and an eclectic percussion section.
Another factor that further differentiates The Shepherd's Dog from other Iron & Wine albums is the level to which he layers sounds. Whereas songs on his former albums were led by a solitary acoustic guitar, nearly every song on this album contains multiple percussion instruments, guitars and vocals. Iron & Wine could have been considered minimalist on former albums, but this album reaches toward orchestral.
Some critics may argue that Beam overproduced this album and lost touch with his basic folk, lo-fi sound. But I think that the incorporation of world music and layered tracks only reflects his artistic background and helps to push him further into the modern music world.
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