The Shepherd's Dog

"Soothing and sinister at the same time, 'The Shepherd's Dog' deserves to sit sweetly in the year end polls. Deeply sensual, richly pastoral… a slow burning, late summer treat."
- BBC.co.uk

Iron and Wine is the stage name for Florida based folk rock singer-songwriter Sam Beam. Iron and Wine has released 2 full length albums: the first of which was 'The Creek Drank The Cradle' on Sub Pop in '02, where Beam wrote, performed, recorded and produced every track on the album by himself at a studio in his home. Featuring acoustic guitars, banjo and slide guitar, the album's music was immediately compared, variously, to that of Nick Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Elliott Smith, John Fahey and Ralph Stanley.

Beam's second album, 'Our Endless Numbered Days' from '04, was recorded in a professional studio with a significant increase in fidelity. The focus was still on acoustic material, but the inclusion of other band members gave rise to a very different sound.

Iron and Wine have also released 3 EPS: In '03 'The Sea and The Rhythm' was released, an EP collecting other home-recorded tracks along the same lines as those on the debut. Beam released an EP titled 'Woman King' early in '05, which expanded on the studio sounds that marked his previous LP, 'Our Endless Numbered Days' and also included electric guitars. The collaborative 'In the Reins' EP which featured songs by Beam and performances by both Iron and Wine and also Calexico together, was released in '05.

Iron and Wine's last release (not including aforementioned the collaborative 'In the Reins' EP) was '05s 'Woman King', a 6-song EP which distinguished itself from its predecessors with a deepening integration of spiraling, dense opuses with intimate confessionals. On 'The Shepherd's Dog' album, this integration is complete.

Sam Beam has confessed to finding spiritual inspiration in Tom Waits' pièce de résistance, 'Swordfishtrombones' (an album with which Waits upended his previous strategies and forged a new musical language for himself).

Recorded by Beam with the assistance of longtime producer Brian Deck and engineer Colin Studebaker, 'The Shepherd's Dog' succeeds in acheiving a similar cathartic recasting of the artist's intentions. Compositionally, it is Iron and Wine's most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It's also the most satisfying.

The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. "White Tooth Man" rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while "Boy With A Coin", the album's first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes. Its seductive rhythms percolate and undulate, from the Psych-Bhangra-redux of "Pagan Angel" and "A Borrowed Car" to the album's last dance - a waltz - "Flightless Bird, American Mouth".

When asked to describe the album to The Independent, Beam remarked that "It's not a political propaganda record, but it's definitely inspired by political confusion, because I was really taken aback when Bush got re-elected