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Jul 26, 2017 Iron & Wine By Christopher Roberts

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Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) is releasing a new album, Beast Epic, on August 25 via Sub Pop. Previously he shared a video for the album’s first single, “Call It Dreaming,” which featured a magical pickup truck. Now he has shared another song from the album, “Thomas County Law,” via its video. J. Austin Wilson directed the black & white clip, which stars Beam as a country preacher setting up chairs in a barn church and practicing his sermon. A press release says Beam is preparing for a funeral service. Wilson also directed the “Call It Dreaming” video. Watch the “Thomas County Law” video below, followed by Iron & Wine’s 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). 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 previous 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.”

Iron & Wine Tour Dates:

Summer 2017

Aug. 26 - Fayetteville, AR - Roots Festival - SOLD OUT
Aug. 27 - Columbia, MO - The Blue Note %
Aug. 28 - Chattanooga, TN - Tivoli Theatre %
Aug. 29 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn % - SOLD OUT
Aug. 30 - Louisville, KY - WFPK on the Waterfront
Aug. 31 - Nashville, TN - Lightning 100’s Live On the Green

Fall 2017

Oct. 12 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall*
Oct. 13 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall # - SOLD OUT
Oct. 14 - StPaul,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 - SOLD OUT
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* - SOLD OUT
Oct. 28 - San Diego, CA - Balboa #
Oct. 29 - Phoenix, AZ - Van Buren #
Oct. 30 - Albuquerque, NM - El Rey #
Nov. 01 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler # - SOLD OUT
Nov. 02 - San Antonio, TX - The Aztec Theater #
Nov. 03 - Houston, TX - The Heights # - SOLD OUT
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 # - SOLD OUT
Nov. 12 - Northampton, MA - Calvin Theatre #
Nov. 13 - New York, NY - Town Hall #
Nov. 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel*

% w/Lydia Loveless
# w/John Moreland
* w/OHMME

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