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Jun 08, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) has announced a new album, Beast Epic, and some tour dates, as well as sharing a video for the album’s first single, “Call It Dreaming.” Beast Epic is due out August 25 via Sub Pop. Watch the “Call It Dreaming” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art and the upcoming tour dates.

Beast Epic is Iron & Wine’s first new solo material in over four years, since 2013’s Ghost on Ghost (which was released by Nonesuch), although in 2016 he released a collaborative album with Jesca Hoop, Love Letter for Fire, and in 2015 there was a collaborative album with Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell, Sing into My Mouth. Beam wrote and produced Beast Epic, which was recorded and engineered by Tom Schick at the Loft in Chicago in July 2016 and January 2017, and mastered by Richard Dodd in Nashville, Tennessee. The album includes contributions from “longtime Iron & Wine collaborators” Rob Burger (keys), Joe Adamik (percussion), and Jim Becker (guitar, banjo, violin, mandolin), plus bassist Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing and Fiona Apple) and Chicagoan Teddy Rankin Parker (cello). J. Austin Wilson directed the “Call It Dreaming” video, which features Beam and friends performing in a magical old pickup truck that moves by itself, with no driver. The album will be released on CD, cassette tape, vinyl, and digitally. There will also be a deluxe 2xLP version on red and blue vinyl “with alternate artwork, two bonus tracks from the Beast Epic recording sessions along with three home recorded demos and an etching on side D.”

Beam issued the following long statement about the album via a press release:

“I must confess that I’ve always shied away from album introductions citing the usual ‘dancing to architecture’ cop out. Speaking to their own work is uncomfortable for many artists, but I’ve made a new album called Beast Epic which is important to me and I wanted to take a moment to talk about why. I’ve been releasing music for about fifteen years now and I feel very blessed to have put out five other full lengths, many EPs and singles, a few collaborations with people much more talented than myself, and made contributions to numerous movie scores and soundtracks. This is my sixth collection of new Iron & Wine material and I’m happy to say that it’s my fourth for Sub Pop Records.

“It’s a warm and serendipitous time to be reuniting with my Seattle friends because I feel there’s a certain kinship between this new collection of songs and my earliest material, which Sub Pop was kind enough to release.

“I have been and always will be fascinated by the way time asserts itself on our bodies and our hearts. The ferris wheel keeps spinning and we’re constantly approaching, leaving or returning to something totally unexpected or startlingly familiar. The rite of passage is an image I’ve returned to often because I feel we’re all constantly in some stage of transition. Beast Epic is saturated with this idea but in a different way simply because each time I return to the theme I’ve collected new experiences to draw from. Where the older songs painted a picture of youth moving wide-eyed into adulthood’s violent pleasures and disappointments, this collection speaks to the beauty and pain of growing up after you’ve already grown up. For me, that experience has been more generous in its gifts and darker in its tragedies.

“The sound of Beast Epic harks back to previous work, in a way, as well. By employing the old discipline of recording everything live and doing minimal overdubbing, I feel like it wears both its achievements and its imperfections on its sleeve. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different genres, sonics and songwriting styles and all that traveled distance is evident in the feel and the arrangements here, but the muscles seemed to have relaxed and been allowed to effortlessly do what they do best.”

Beast Epic Tracklist:

1. Claim Your Ghost
2. Thomas County Law
3. Bitter Truth
4. Song in Stone
5. Summer Clouds
6. Call It Dreaming
7. About a Bruise
8. Last Night
9. Right for Sky
10. The Truest Stars We Know
11. Our Light Miles

Iron & Wine Tour Dates:

Summer 2017:

Jun. 28 - Portsmouth, NH - Prescott Park Arts Festival (Solo)
Jun. 29 - Canadiagua, NY - CMAC (Solo) @
Jul. 22 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theater ^
Aug. 26 - Fayetteville, AR - Roots Festival
Aug. 27 - Columbia, MO - The Blue Note %
Aug. 28 - Chattanooga, TN - Tivoli Theatre %
Aug. 29 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn %
Aug. 30 - Louisville, KY - WFPK on the Waterfront

Fall 2017:

Oct. 12 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
Oct. 13 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
Oct. 14 - St Paul,MN - Palace Theatre
Oct. 15 - Lincoln, NE - Rococo Theatre #
Oct. 17 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater #
Oct. 18 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theater
Oct. 19 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater #
Oct. 20 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
Oct. 21 - San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre
Oct. 26 - Los Angeles, CA - The Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian
Oct. 27 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy & Harriet’s
Oct. 28 - San Diego, CA - - Balboa #
Oct. 29 - Phoenix, AZ - Van Buren #
Oct. 30 - Albuquerque, NM - El Rey #
Nov. 01 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler #
Nov. 02 - San Antonio, TX - The Aztec Theater #
Nov. 03 - Houston, TX - The Heights #
Nov. 04 - New Orleans, LA - Joy Theater #
Nov. 06 - Ft Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room#
Nov. 07 - Orlando, FL - The Beacham #
Nov. 09 - Washington DC - Lincoln Theatre #
Nov. 10 - New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall #
Nov. 11 - Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center #
Nov. 12 - Northampton, MA - Calvin Theatre #
Nov. 13 - New York, NY - Town Hall #
Nov. 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel*

@ support for Jason Isbell
^ w/Joan Shelley
% w/Lydia Loveless
# w/John Moreland
* w/OHMME

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