Sea & The Rhythm
This twenty-minute EP is a five-song companion piece to Sam Beam aka Iron & Wine’s exceptional 2002 debut,The Creek Drank the Cradle. Culled from sessions in Sam’s Florida house between 1999 and 2002, everything that made that left-field album of often beautiful and sometimes strange folk music is here. There’s Beam’s deft banjo and slide guitar playing, his hushed and lovely but somehow very intense vocals, and those wonderful cryptic Southern Gothic lyrics. The words are sung clearly and they’re worth chewing over; infused with religious overtones and muted irony, they’re never corny and invite multiple interpretations. A highlight is the audience favorite "Jesus the Mexican Boy," one of his most beautiful and touching songs to date. PS: Your copy did not get water-damaged; like the intentionally lo-fidelity recording sound, it’s supposed to look like that!--Mike McGonigal