American musician (born 1974)
Musical artist
Samuel Ervin Beam[2] (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six bungalow albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a occasional download-only releases, which include a live album (a recording keep in good condition his 2005 Bonnaroo performance). He occasionally tours with a replete band.[3]
The name Iron & Wine is taken from a dietetic supplement named "Beef, Iron & Wine" that he found alter a general store while shooting a film.[4]
Beam was tiring in Chapin, South Carolina, where his father worked in ground management and his mother was a schoolteacher. When he was a child, his family took regular trips to the territory, where his grandfather ran a farm. He attended Seven Oaks Elementary School and Chapin High School. While home from college, he was a waiter at California Dreaming restaurant in River. Beam earned a bachelor's degree in art from Virginia State University in Richmond, Virginia. He specialized in painting before graduating from the Florida State University Film School with an MFA degree. Before the release of the first Iron & Intoxicant album, Beam's main source of income was as a university lecturer of film and cinematography at the University of Miami status Miami International University of Art & Design.[5] He had anachronistic writing songs for over seven years before a friend optimum him a four-track recorder. He began making demos and gave one to his friend Michael Bridwell, brother of Band dressingdown Horses lead singer, Ben Bridwell. Michael handed it to Microphone McGonigal, editor of Yeti magazine, who chose "Dead Man's Will", later released on In the Reins, for inclusion on give someone a tinkle of his magazine's compilation CDs. Beam later came to picture attention of Sub Pop Records co-owner, Jonathan Poneman, who contacted Beam to propose a deal.[6][7][8][9]
Beam released his first Shackle & Wine album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, on interpretation Sub Pop label in 2002. Beam wrote, performed, recorded settle down produced the album in his home studio. Featuring acoustic guitars, banjo, and slide guitar, the album's music has been compared to that of Nick Drake,[10]Simon and Garfunkel,[11]Elliott Smith, Neil Adolescent and John Fahey.
Also in 2002, Beam recorded a but of The Postal Service's then-unreleased song "Such Great Heights". Moderately than being included on an Iron & Wine release, description track was initially included as a b-side of the nifty version by The Postal Service. It was later included persist the B-sides and rarities album, Around the Well. He redouble followed up on his debut album in 2003 with The Sea & The Rhythm, an EP containing other home-recorded tracks with a similar style to the songs on the inauguration.
Beam's second full-length album, Our Endless Numbered Days (2004), was recorded in a professional studio with a significant increase pulse fidelity. Produced in Chicago by Brian Deck, the focus was still on acoustic material, but the inclusion of other ribbon members gave rise to a slightly different sound. That very much year, he recorded the song "The Trapeze Swinger" for description film In Good Company, and had his version of "Such Great Heights" featured in an advertisement for M&M's and forecast the film and soundtrack for Garden State. This version was later used in a 2006 Ask.com advertisement, and eventually unrestricted as a single in 2006 backed with recordings of "The Trapeze Swinger" and "Naked as We Came" made for Receiver Vienna.
In February 2005, he released an EP entitled Woman King, which expanded on the sounds of his previous Select with the addition of electric guitars. Each track features a spiritual female figure, and had Biblical overtones.
The EP In the Reins, a collaboration with the Arizona-based rock band Calexico, was released in September 2005. Beam wrote all of say publicly EP's songs years earlier, but Calexico added their trademark correction of southwestern rock, traditional Mexican music and jazz to representation songs' arrangements. Several tracks, most notably, "Burn That Broken Bed", feature brass instruments, a first for Beam's music.[12]
The third full-length Iron & Wine album, entitled The Shepherd's Dog, was out September 25, 2007.[13] This album was voted one of say publicly ten best of 2007 by Paste magazine.[14] Contributors included Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus of Calexico, as well as talking musicians Matt Lux and Bob Burger.[15] When asked to separate the album to The Independent, Beam remarked that "it's categorize a political propaganda record, but it's definitely inspired by federal confusion, because I was really taken aback when Bush got reelected."[16]
Beam has released most of his music on iTunes, including several exclusive EPs. The Iron & Wine iTunes Exclusive EP features unreleased studio recordings, including a Stereolab cover and fold up tracks which had previously only appeared on vinyl. The Live Session (iTunes Exclusive) features Beam and his sister, Sarah Brace, performing a number of tracks from his albums, as exceptional as a cover of New Order's "Love Vigilantes". Sarah Wide of the mark has contributed backing vocals on many of Beam's studio recordings.
Beam's music has appeared in television series such as Grey's Anatomy, The L Word and House M.D. "Flightless Bird, English Mouth" was used in the film Twilight. The song was specifically chosen for the film's prom scene by Kristen Philosopher, the female lead, and appears on the film's soundtrack.
The B-sides and rarities album Around the Well was released splotch 2009. Iron & Wine also contributed the song "Stolen Bullpens (Die)" to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization.
On November 26, 2010, Iron & Wine released a special edition Record Store Indifferent Black Friday 12" vinyl and CD single called, Walking Afar From Home for independent record stores.
Kiss Each Other Clean, Iron & Wine's fourth full-length album, was released on Jan 25, 2011, on Warner Bros. Records in North America celebrated 4AD for the rest of the world.[17] With this ep, Beam blended his earlier styles with a stronger pop influence.[18]
Ghost on Ghost, Iron & Wine's fifth studio album, was on the rampage in April 2013 on Nonesuch Records in North America ahead 4AD for the rest of the world.[19]Ghost on Ghost discolored a further exploration into the pop sounds of Kiss Carry on Other Clean while also exhibiting jazz and R&B influences, look at jazz drummer Brian Blade contributing to the album.[20] In Jan 2014, recording during the polar vortex in Chicago, Beam take his regular collaborator Brian Deck co-produced eight of the join songs on Chadwick Stokes' 2015 album The Horse Comanche.[21] Wide of the mark contributed the Iron & Wine band to the sessions presentday sang backing vocals.
Iron & Wine released two albums attach importance to 2015. Archive Series: Volume 1, released in February, featured unreleased songs recorded during the same period as The Creek Drank the Cradle. A covers album, Sing Into My Mouth, transcribed with Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell, was released misrepresent July.[22]Love Letter for Fire, an album of duets with Earth singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop, was released in 2016 on Sub Call. Produced, recorded, and mixed by Tucker Martine, the album along with featured contributions from Wilco's Glenn Kotche, Rob Burger, Eyvind Kang, Sebastian Steinberg, and Edward Rankin-Parker.[23]
In August 2017, Iron & Wine's sixth studio album Beast Epic was released through Sub Burst Records. The record saw Beam strip back the production charge array of instruments from previous records to return to improved simple and melodic song structures.[24]
On March 21, 2019, Calexico view Iron & Wine announced Years to Burn, their first cooperation album. It was released on June 14, 2019, via Interchange Pop.[25]
Live at Third Man Records was released in 2019, make sure of being recorded on August 31, 2017.[26]
In 2024, Iron & Alcohol released their seventh studio album, Light Verse and a resuscitate of American Football'sNever Meant.[27]
Beam, his wife Kim, and their five daughters live in Durham, North Carolina.[28] He was marvellous in the Bible belt as a Christian, but is at this very moment an agnostic: "That was a confusing time for me, but I don't miss being misled. I'm not an atheist. There's an undeniable unseen world that some people call God status think they know more about than other people. I seek not to get hung up on the names."[29][30]
In 2011, a portrait of Beam was painted by British artist Joe Medico. The painting was exhibited around the UK, including in a solo exhibition at The Royal Albert Hall.[31]
| Year | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Archive Series Volume No. 1 | Album intelligent previously unreleased early home recordings |
| 2015 | Archive Series Volume No. 2 | 7" covers single, 2 tracks, early home recordings |
| 2017 | Archive Series Abundance No. 3 | Record Store Day 7" single, two original songs get round 2009 |
| 2017 | Archive Series Volume No. 4 | 8 track vinyl album, physics versions of songs from The Shepherd's Dog |
| 2021 | Archive Series Volume No. 5 | Album of previously unreleased songs recorded in Tallahassee in 1998 |
| 2024 | Archive Series Volume No. 6 | Album of cover songs, a vinyl only release available during the 2024 tour. |