Friday, February 13, 2009

Iron & Wine


Around the time that 'The Creek Drank The Cradle' was released, Iron & Wine were one of my favorite bands in the world, and that record still does it for me almost seven years on. At the time they were one of the first bands that I was into that had a treasure trove of songs floating around online, 7 inches and b-sides like "Dearest Forsaken" "Call Your Boys" and "Carissa's Weird", compilation tracks like "Peng! 33" and "Waitin' For A Superman" and then eventually the full set of demos for 'The Creek Drank The Cradle' and 'Our Endless Numbered Days' became widely available.

Sam Beam has always seemed to be the kind of artist who is never short of material and this is backed up by the announcement of 'Around the Well', an Iron & Wine rarities compilation. The tracklisting covers the bands entire career to date including three songs recorded for the film 'In Good Company', but never released; “Belated Promise Ring,” “God Made the Automobile” and “Homeward, These Shoes.”

There are a few omissions, most notably "Carissa's Weird", "Her Tea Leaves", "We All, Us Three, Will Ride", "Ab's Song", "Overhead" and "Red Dust", but this really is just nit picking over what looks like a fantastic compilation and worthy addition to the Iron & Wine catalogue.

'Around the Well' will be released by Sub Pop in May as a 2 CD and 3 LP set.

MP3: Iron & Wine - Her Tea Leaves
MP3: Iron & Wine - God Made the Automobile (Live)

Iron & Wine on Myspace
Support The Artist. Buy.Buy.Buy.

Previously on SOTR: Iron & Wine

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