Sam Beam of Iron and Wine @ The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee – 02.08.07

The show opened with The 1900s out of Chicago. There’s a generation of people, just starting to make music, who were teenagers when Belle & Sebastian’s Tigermilk came out. So we can expect a new wave of bands with a full stage, a full sound, and multi-layered music. (see also: The Math and Physics Club, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s). The 1900s are more folk than B&S, less pop than Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. They mixed keys, strings, bass, acoustic, drums, tambourine, even an accordion, and had at least three vocalists on every song. They were entertaining, fun, but it was clear that the crowd was waiting for the main event.

I’ve always enjoyed Iron and Wine’s solo work far more than the collaborations. Everyone raved about the collaboration with Calexico, but I fell into the Woman King EP and couldn’t find my way out. Ryan called that EP one of the best records of 2005, but it’s on my list of top ten favorite albums, period. So, for me, a solo Sam Beam show is ideal. The expectations couldn’t have been higher.

The stage prep was simple: a single microphone, a small table with water and a glass of red wine, and an acoustic guitar. He opened with a few standards (Free Until They Cut Me Down, Sodom South Georgia). Then he moved into new material. At least half of the songs were unreleased. He’s finished recording a new album and he tried out the new songs on the crowd. The new material continues the progression he made between Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days. It was… happier, more bold, more hopeful.

It was the first time he had played most of the songs and the first time in a while that he had played a show without a band. He stumbled over chords and words, but not so much that it was distracting. His encore was another new one and Upward Over the Mountain. (“So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten. Sons are like birds flying upwards over the mountain.”)

He completely captured the room. He could have played for another hour and not lost the crowd.

Iron and Wine’s music represents rural America far more than the neo-conservative, machismo drunk, faux-country pop music that is (most of what is) played on “country” radio. It’s meant to be listened to while sitting on a front porch drinking lemonade, while remembering why we sit on front porches drinking lemonade.

Sam Beam falls in with Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and Alison Krauss (among others) who are exploring and reinterpreting the true rural roots of American music. They’re digging out music that’s been lost in the corporate and urban din of the last 30 years. They give us a look at where we’ve come from and point out a different path for where we can go.

What did you think?

UPDATE: Review from Channel 3000

(travis)

Myspace: The 1900s
Myspace: Iron and Wine