I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: CALEXICO AND IRON & WINE-Tiny Desk Concert #873 (August 1, 2019).

I saw Calexico live in 2018.  They were fantastic–even better than I hoped they’d be.  Then they put out the song with Iron & Wine “Father Mountain” is one of my favorite songs of the year.  I don’t know what it is about this song–the melody, the vocals, whatever.  I love it.  And the version here is even better.  Sam Beam and Joey Burns’ vocals are perfect together.

I have a bunch of Calexico records and they’re all terrific, so it’s surprising to realize:

Joey Burns and John Convertino (drums) had just about seen it all. Their band, Calexico, has been around for nearly a quarter-century, and in that time together they’ve churned out a long string of albums and collaborated with countless musicians on countless projects. But they’d never set foot behind the Tiny Desk until the day we recorded this performance.

By contrast, their pal Sam Beam — best known as the man behind Iron & Wine, with whom Calexico had just released a new album called Years to Burn — was already a Tiny Desk veteran. Beam recorded a solo set as Iron & Wine in 2011, then returned with singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop six years later, and he took great pains to gently tease the Calexico guys for taking so long. (“It’s fun to be back,” he noted between songs, adding, “Isn’t it, Joey?”)

Up next is “Midnight Sun.” Joey Burns sings lead (he wrote this) and there’s great slide guitar from pianist Robert Burger.  Jacob Valenzuela provides a lovely muted trumpet solo and bassist Sebastian Steinberg switches to a guitar for this song.

As Sam introduces everyone, he says, “I’m Sam.  Three timer (cough cough).  I think I’ve officially made it so they can’t invite me back.”

Calexico and Iron & Wine first made a record together back in 2005, when they released In the Reins, and took 14 years to release a follow-up.

“He Lays in the Reins” is a quieter number.  Valenzuela sings a verse in Spanish, which is a nice addition, as is his unmuted trumpet solo.

This is great.

[READ: August 29, 2019] “The Loop”

Boy I loved this story until the end.  The end which is sort of the point (or at least the title) of the story.

Bev was divorced and her only child was off at college.  She had just lost her job as an adjunct teacher.  She sold her house and bought a two-bedroom apartment.  She didn’t need money right away so she volunteered for Movin’ on Up.  The organization takes castoffs from the well to do and delivers them to those in need.

She drove the van and two teenagers (typically string men) would help to move the furniture.  The details of this situation are really interesting, particularly the attitudes of the people who receive the gifts.

On this Saturday, the teenage’ boy didn’t show up so she only had one volunteer, a girl named Emily.  Since the pickups weren’t too large, Bev figured they could handle it.

The story breezes through their day–seeing the workings of the various people donating and receiving.

It’s the last pick up of the day that causes trouble.  There’s confusion about the bedframe.  Is it there or not?  Emily goes into the room and takes a picture of the scene–the bedframe is in the picture. But when they go to move the gear the bedframe isn’t there.  What gives?  Emily seems more upset than anyone else about this.

Later when they go to deliver the bed, more confusion occurs.  The house that is getting the bed has a futon.  They can’t take it (they don’t discard junk), but they have to move it to put the bed in.  When they return to the room, there is a second futon in the same exact place.

So this story is clearly going into bizarre territory.  But then it goes one step further and becomes a story not of that kind of weirdness, but a wholly different kind. One that doesn’t explain the weird things that happened–it just ignores them.

Bummer.