About Iron and Wine
When the pandemic
began, and the world shut down, so did the process of creating for Iron &
Wine's Sam Beam. In its place was a domesticity that the singer hadn't felt in
a long time, and although it was filled with many rewards, making music was not
one of them. Reflecting on that time, Beam notes:
"I feel blessed and
grateful that I and most of my friends and family made it through the pandemic
relatively unscathed compared to so many others, but it completely paralyzed
the songwriter in me. While so many artists, fortunately, found inspiration in
the chaos, I was the opposite and withered with the constant background noise
of uncertainty and fear. The last thing I wanted to write about was COVID, and
yet every moment I sat with my pen, it lingered around the edges and wouldn't
leave. I struggled to focus until I gave up, and this lasted for over two
years."
The journey back began
with a recording session in Memphis to record a handful of Lori McKenna tracks
for the EP Lori with friend and
producer Matt Ross-Spang.
"Recording has always
been my favorite, and that session was an attempt to reconnect with what I love
most about making music. I could finally feel the blood coming back into the
body and the creative muscles beginning to relax and move again."
Soon a series of short
tours were booked entitled "Back to Basics," which, out of necessity, were solo
acoustic shows in smaller venues. They had an unspoken weight to them for Beam
and the audiences alike, and also an incredible sense of relief for finally
sharing art together and being back to
work! A larger tour with Andrew Bird followed in the summer of '22, and
Beam was inspired even more by the excitement of collaborating with Andrew and
his band and the warmth of musical friends.
"By the time I got
home, the paralysis had officially passed, and I was finishing lyrics and
booking studio time for what would become Light
Verse!"
As Beam began to
assemble the musicians he wanted for his record, one common thread arose- they
all lived in Los Angeles! Outside of his
own pedigree, the decision to work with engineer and mixer Dave Way at his studio
Waystation high up in Laurel Canyon was a logical step based on recommendations
from two of the joining players on the record. An additional session would also
take place at Silent Zoo Studio, where a 24-piece orchestra would lay claim to
a handful of songs, helping prepare them for lift-off.
"I've met and played
with so many talented musicians from Los Angeles over the years but never
recorded there, and this felt like the perfect time to try. Tyler Chester plays
all the keyboards, Sebastian Steinberg plays the bass, David Garza guitar and slide
and stuff, Griffin Goldsmith, Beth Goodfellow, and Kyle Crane all play drums
here and there, and Paul Cartwright plays many various sizes of violin and
mandolin and wrote some wonderful string arrangements for the orchestra! Even
Fiona Apple was kind and generous enough to lend us her voice (that miracle
that sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time) to a duet
called "All In Good Time."
Beam lyrically once
again takes focus on a series of both fictional and personal insights, filled
with desperate characters and wide-eyed optimists, offering promise and a dose
of heartache, tears and laughter, life and love. Taking stock in the album's title,
he jokes, "Light verse is a form of poetry about playful themes that often uses
nonsense and wordplay, and it's my first official Iron & Wine comedy
album!.... Just kidding...."
While true this may be
Iron & Wine's most playful record, Beam says the title mostly reflects the
way the songs were born with joy after the heaviness and anxiety of the
pandemic. Where recent records like Beast
Epic or Weed Garden gave air to
the disquiet of middle-aged frailty and brokenness, these songs trade that for
the focus acceptance can bring. Moment by moment, they delight in being pointed
or silly (or both) and attempt beauty over prettiness.
Light
Verse arrives April 26th, and it's Iron & Wine's seventh
full-length overall and fifth for Sub Pop Records. Fashioned as an album that
should be taken as a whole, it sounds lovingly handmade and self-assured as a
secret handshake. Track by track, its equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth,
and dare.
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