Product Description

Iron and Wine's last release (not including the collaborative In the Reins EP which featured songs by Iron and Wine's Sam Beam and performances by both Iron and Wine and Calexico together) was 2005's Woman King, a 6-song EP which distinguished itself from its predecessors with a deepening integration of spiraling, dense opuses with intimate confessionals. On The Shepherd's Dog this integration is complete. Sam Beam has confessed to finding spiritual inspiration in Tom Waits' pièce de résistance, Swordfishtrombones, an album with which Waits upended his previous strategies and forged a new musical language for himself. Recorded by Sam with the assistance of longtime producer Brian Deck and engineer Colin Studebaker, The Shepherd's Dog succeeds in accomplishing a similar cathartic recasting of the artist's intentions. The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. "White Tooth Man" rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while "Boy with a Coin", the album's first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes. Its seductive rhythms percolate and undulate, from the Psych-Bhangra-redux of "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" to the album's last dance a waltz "Flightless Bird, American Mouth". Compositionally, it is Iron and Wine's most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It's also the most satisfying.

Track Listing

1. Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car
2. White Tooth Man
3. Lovesong Of The Buzzard
4. Carousel
5. House By The Sea
6. Innocent Bones
7. Wolves (Song Of The Shepherd's Dog)
8. Resurrection Fern
9. Boy With A Coin
10. Devil Never Sleeps, The
11. Peace Beneath The City
12. Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2854 in Music
• Brand: Dig
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .15 pounds

Amazon.com
Following a one-record hiatus to collaborate with Tucson collective Calexico on 2005's In The Reins, Iron & Wine (Sam Beam, that is) recoils to the earnestness and intimacy that embodied his first two records, his cerebral words and phrases tunneled beneath an orchestra of guitar, banjo, keyboards, and strings. More definitive than ever, the rhythm and percussion complement Beam's voice, a lulling, almost eerie tone that occasionally recalls John Lennon's early solo work, especially on delicate tracks like the bluesy "Wolves (Songs of the Shepherd's Dog" and "Carousel," with its veiled references to Iraq. Those raised on the lo-fi routine of Beam's earlier work will find rawness and sanctity in the more upbeat selections: The CSN folk-rock of "House by the Sea" and "Boy with a Coin" and the atmospheric beauty of "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" and Shepherd's best song, "Lovesong of the Buzzard." With an organ swirling about and a slide guitar adding gentle flourishes, Beam concedes that "no one is the savior they would like to be," without realizing that, when it comes to fluent music and pristine storytelling, perhaps he is. --Scott Holter

More from Iron & Wine

Our Endless Numbered Days

The Creek Drank the Cradle

In the Reins, with Calexico

Woman King

The Sea & the Rhythm

Customer Reviews

Sonics Expand, Charm Remains
What a remarkable album. Sam Beam takes new steps with each song, pulling in new instruments and new styles without losing his soul or his signature whisper. From steel guitar to jazz piano, each new addition is incorporated with aplomb, and nothing feels forced.

For fans coming to this straight from the last "album," Our Endless Numbered Days, the changes may come as a surprise, but those who've heard Woman King or In the Reins, an EP collaboration with Calexico, will recognize this album as a logical follow-up to those efforts. Indeed, two members of Calexico appear here, contributing to the filling-out of a sound that is bigger and better than ever. Iron and Wine can still do introspective, soul-searing songs (like album-closer "Flightless Bird, American Mouth) better than almost anyone. Now the band can make you dance, too, on songs like "The Devil Never Sleeps."

If that seems unlikely, consider this: So far, every time I listen to the album, I end up playing it twice. Sam Beam has discovered new worlds of sound. Won't you explore them with him?

One Of The Best Of 2007 (Without A Doubt)
OK, so you loved "Creek Drank The Cradle", but didn't like "Woman King" as much, but then "Our Endless Numbered Days" grew on you, but still your favorite is "Sea & The Rhythm" (and really you just want to hear Sam cover more Postal Service songs because Garden State is your favorite movie of all time, and you saw it way before anyone else), so you took a listen to "In The Reins" with Calexico, but it was too Western or Spanishy or something, so you went ahead and bought "Shepherd's Dog" anyway and now you're not sure what to say about it because there's more instruments and stuff.

Jeez people, give it a rest. This is a great album, and easily one of the best of 2007.

PS: If you buy the album directly from SubPop.com, you get a bonus CD of two extra songs: "Arms Of A Thief" & "Serpent Charmer".

My mind, my ears, my body, my heart...
Having just bought the album it hasn't had time to sink in yet like Sam Beam's other albums have, but seeing so few reviews on the page I figured I should contribute some first impressions. First off, if you're a fan of Iron & Wine already you shouldn't need to read a review, just purchase the CD now!

Iron & Wine (Sam Beam) has captivated listeners from his first album, "The Creek Drank the Cradle" (TCDTC) with his soft, restrained voice and simple, subtly perfect guitar work--and held them since. This album does not disrupt the slow transformation towards a more band driven, "fuller" sound, evident on each of his consecutive LP releases. The percussion is much more present in these songs than in, say, "Our Endless Numbered Days" or TCDTC (which really didn't have any). Lucky for us the percussion section really pulls it off, managing to become a solid "spine" for much of the album while remaining diverse, interesting, and spirited.

The lyrics are incredible as always, on par in my opinion with Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, though not necessarily as direct, or dark as those two can be. Although the lyrics are consistently poetic and beautiful they don't quite reach the level of emotion as on his first album TCDTC, nor do they feel as thematically related as his EP "Women King."

At the moment, the stand out tunes for me are 'Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)' and 'Resurrection Fern.' The first is rhythmically intense; a perfect example of the evolution of Sam Beam's sound and perhaps a hint at a more experimental future for Iron and Wine. At times this song sounds like a Tom Waits from Rain Dogs, and at other times it reminds me of Bob Marley's later years. 'Resurrection Fern' on the other hand, is a throw-back to the "good old" sound of Sam's earliest songs...and it is a synergy of somehow both romantic and existential lyrical prowess and guitar picking simplicity. For me, this song alone was worth the purchase.

I'm very happy with this album, and will continue to support this amazing artist. If you're looking into Iron and Wine for this first time, I'd say this is a perfect starter to work your way back through their (his) discography. I give it 4.5 stars: it carries my mind, my ears, my body, my heart...but it doesn't carry my soul the way "The Creek Drank the Cradle" or "The Sea and the Rhythm [EP]" do.