The Creek Drank the Cradle
Iron & Wine is Sam Beam, a back-porch Florida singer-songwriter whose sad little songs pack a helluva wallop. Beam's immediately likable tunes paint such clear pictures that songs like "Southern Anthem" and "Muddy Hymnal" are more akin to short stories by Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor than to your average pop ditty. Recorded in his living room on a vintage four-track,The Creek Drank the Cradleco-stars cassette hiss, ambient room sound, and Beam himself. A stripped-down, one-man band, Beam contributes delicious Delta-flavored slide guitar, passable banjo, and deliriously beautiful harmonizing. Beam isn't just a songwriter the equal ofWill OldhamandLeonard Cohen(really--and it'll be a surprise if folks don't immediately start covering him), the boy cansing. His melt-in-your-head-but-not-in-your-ears voice is instantly recognizable and will certainly please fans ofNick Drake,Lou Barlow, andElliott Smith.--Mike McGonigal