iron and wine

the creek drank the cradle

‘Perhaps it is just the power of suggestion, but this album seems like the perfect accompaniment to a relaxing night at home with a bottle of wine. “The Creek Drank the Cradle” fulfills the promise of all the songs-for-love-making infomercials. It is soulful and honest in all of its bare-boned qualities.

Sam Beam’s Iron and Wine is an authentic reproduction of early 20th century folk and blues. It is minimalist in its approach, providing finger-plucked guitars, blurred and slurred vocals, and the occasional banjo and slide guitar. “The Creek Drank the Cradle” transports you to a riverside front porch somewhere in the south. It is hard not to picture Mr. Beam sitting there on the porch in cuffed overalls and bare feet.

Even the recording has a live feel to it, filling the speakers with the trebly screech of finger slides and the warm hum of an empty room, which can only be produced so well through lo-fi four track recordings.

This AM radio favorite is already working its way into becoming a classic in its own rite. This album would fit perfectly in with the “Down from the Mountain” group inspired by the making of “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Iron and Wine is an ode to an America long forgotten. Walking in the footsteps of Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, and Alan Lomax, Sam Beam’s debut record is a rarity in today’s music market. It humbly reminds the listener of simpler days and ways, a root, which David Bazan seemed to originally be taking Pedro the Lion.

When all is said and done, Sam Beam may be one of the only people left today making true American music. His songs are constructed in basic blues formulas with well-done overdubbed harmonies that further warm up the sound of the album.

On such a fluid and welcoming album, each song stands well as a whole, or on its own. Overall, though, the two best songs on the album would have to be “Upward over the Mountain,” and “An Angry Blade.”