Sam Beam is one of those rare artists who have yet to make a career misstep. From his 2002 debut The Creek Drank the Cradle to 2005’s Calexico collaboration In the Reins, the Floridian consistently delivers tender folk reveries straight from his pastoral heart. Better-known as Iron & Wine, Beam first entered the public eye with his cover of “Such Great Heights” for the 2004 film Garden State and has remained a college crowd staple henceforth.
However, it’s fairly easy to maintain an audience when you’re standing in place.
Up until his latest release, The Shepherd’s Dog, Beam has stuck to the same basic trifurcation: acoustic guitar-centered songs, whispered vocals and country-bumpkin lyrics. The main appeal of his efforts to this point stems from his idiosyncratic voice and seamless finger picking phrases, both of which create a natural intimacy between performer and observer.
Like all great folk artists, Beam has a knack for audience captivation that most guitarists (see: male college students) can only dream of emulating , an impressive feat given that it’s 2007 and not 1967.
While Iron & Wine’s records set the mood perfectly for a passing afternoon (ahem), his discography begins to homogenize after an hour or two of straight listening.
Enter The Shepherd’s Dog, Beam’s fourth-full length effort. While Iron & Wine isn’t pulling a Bringing It All Back Home (see: Dylan, Newport Folk Festival, July 1965), the disc does represent a wise stylistic jump on Beam’s part. Expanding upon ideas first presented in 2005’s Women King EP, The Shepherd’s Dog is an album marked by rich production and newfound percussive impetus. The fresh timbres (i.e. the sitar on “White Tooth Man”) and subtle electronic manipulations (i.e. the vocals on “Carousel”) give a fuller, more cohesive feel to Iron & Wine’s woozy arrangements.
Older fans will no doubt enjoy more traditional ballads such as “Resurrection Fern” and “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” while The Shepherd Dog’s more “experimental” tracks will in no way alienate fringe listeners.
The bottom line: for the first time Iron & Wine has made a record that embraces spending plenty of time in the studio without falling into the snare of excessive polish. As a result, Beam finally leads his faithful off that summer porch and out into the swamp.
