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Archive for the ‘Iron & Wine’ Category

J. Robert Lennon–“The Loop” (New Yorker, August 26, 2019)

Posted in Calexico, Huh?, Iron & Wine, J. Robert Lennon, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Sam Beam, Short Story, Surreal, Teenagers, Tiny Desk Concert on August 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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. (more…)

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E.L. Doctorow–“Wakefield” (New Yorker, January 14, 2008)

Posted in E.L. Doctorow, Iron & Wine, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Unreliable narrator, WNYC--93.9 New York, Yuck! on January 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1.14.2008 SOUNDTRACK: IRON & WINE-Tiny Desk Concert #105 (January 21, 2011).

irionwineI have enjoyed Iron & Wine, but not extensively.  I knew that it was more or less a Sam Beam project (until recently, as the band has since grown in size).  And I knew that he sang beautiful folk songs. I did not know that he was such an amiable and sweet fellow.

For this Tiny Desk, Beam plays four songs.  Three are from his then new album, Kiss Each Other Clean, and they are great.  Beam’s voice sounds fantastic and his playing is excellent too.

After the first song, “Half Moon,” Bob Boilen asks him when he has time to write songs and Beam replies that he has less and less time.  He has to get up early to take the kids to school, so he works like a day job for song writing.

For the second song, “Big Burned Hand” he begins with the capo on fret five and then switches it to fret four apologizing that it’s early.  It’s another beautiful song.  At the end he apologizes for the word “fucking” in the final line (“the lion and the lamb are fucking in the back row”) but says that no other word would have had the same impact.  He doesn’t use words like that lightly in his songs.

He says that “Tree By The River” is a song he had been writing for ten years.  He was afraid it was always turning out saccharine, but thinks he finally got it.

Before playing the final song, Robin Hilton requests an old song (I can’t hear it) which Beam says he will butcher.  Robin says he will die happy if Beam plays it, but Beam says he’ll die unhappy if he plays it badly.  So instead, the final song is an older one, “Naked As We Came,” which has become a set-ender for the band.   Stephen Thompson says it’s great to hear this in this stripped down acoustic format instead of the full band version that has been common now.

And speaking of the full band, when Kiss Each Other Clean came out, the full band of Iron & Wine performed it live on WNYC (you can hear all four of these songs with the full band). And NPR has archived that performance, which you can download here.

[READ: January 7, 2015] “Wakefield”

I have always intended to read more from Doctorow, but he always seems to fall off my radar.  So I don’t know how this compares to his other works.  I really enjoyed it even if I felt like I had to suspend my disbelief a number of times in what was otherwise a somewhat realistic story.

Realistic or not, I really loved the conceit behind it.  The narrator and his wife of many years have had a fight about something stupid.  He went off to work as usual, but on the way home strange things happened.  First there is a problem with is train and he winds up arriving home much later than usual.  And then he finds there’s a power failure (it was interesting to read this right after Updike’s power failure story last week).

He gets out of his car and sees that there are raccoons behind the garage so he chases them away.  When he goes upstairs in the garage he sees that there are baby raccoons there too.  He chases them away and, since the power is still out and he is mentally taxed, he sits in a tattered rocking chair.

He only wakes up the next morning.  And he knows that his wife will never believe the truth. (more…)

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