from:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article360505.ece

Calexico/Iron & Wine, Forum, London threestar
By Emma Field
Published: 27 April 2006

Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, a former cinematography
teacher from Miami, and the Tuscon, Arizona Tex-Mex
outfit Calexico gather on an ivy-gilded stage,
crowding 12 people on to it at the height of their
collaborative effort. Although Calexico are headlining
the tour, promoting the new album Garden Ruin, this is
also a significant moment for Iron & Wine.

Beam's collaboration with Calexico is the realisation
of a five-year aspiration to re-record his debut LP,
The Creek Drank the Cradle, with Calexico. Beam ended
up releasing what he had produced on his home
computer. Iron & Wine's delicately intimate sound on
that album and the follow-up, Our Endless Numbered
Days (2004), is some of the most enchanting music
produced in the alt.country genre. Yet perhaps this,
like many brilliant moves, was an unintended turn.

The EP In the Reins, with Calexico reined in as Beam's
backing band, is a departure from the whispered
yearnings and lilting lullabies of Iron & Wine's
albums. The grand scale of the stage and theatre alone
serve to draw much more than his usual whisper from
Beam, in "Sodom, South Georgia" and "Cinder and
Smoke". Gradually, more members of Calexico join him
on stage and the sound gets larger, with Joey Burns
taking the lead vocals for "Prison on Route 41" to a
fanfare by trumpeters. By way of interlude, the guest
mariachi, Salvador Duran, plays solo. He stamps his
feet, clicks his tongue, and adds animal sounds into
his hypnotic guitar serenades.

Calexico then immerses the crowd in a grand ambience,
weaving through noir guitar riffs and jazz structures
with glimmering flat steel guitar, adorned with
trumpet flourishes and punctuated with elaborate
rhythms. They create an iconic road-movie soundscape,
which crosses borders and cultures, picking up
characters and instruments along the way. Yet Burns'
clear country melod-ies and the band's slick
professionalism veer dangerously close to MOR.

"Across the Wire" and "Sunken Waltz" are high points.
After Calexico's sparkling cover of Love's "Alone
Again Or" the gig comes full circle: Beam and his
sister return for "In the Reins" and Duran sings his
impassioned refrain. It's striking how seamless the
collaboration proves. Underlining both bands' alt.
status they play a laid-back, countrified rendition of
The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties".

Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, a former cinematography
teacher from Miami, and the Tuscon, Arizona Tex-Mex
outfit Calexico gather on an ivy-gilded stage,
crowding 12 people on to it at the height of their
collaborative effort. Although Calexico are headlining
the tour, promoting the new album Garden Ruin, this is
also a significant moment for Iron & Wine.

Beam's collaboration with Calexico is the realisation
of a five-year aspiration to re-record his debut LP,
The Creek Drank the Cradle, with Calexico. Beam ended
up releasing what he had produced on his home
computer. Iron & Wine's delicately intimate sound on
that album and the follow-up, Our Endless Numbered
Days (2004), is some of the most enchanting music
produced in the alt.country genre. Yet perhaps this,
like many brilliant moves, was an unintended turn.

The EP In the Reins, with Calexico reined in as Beam's
backing band, is a departure from the whispered
yearnings and lilting lullabies of Iron & Wine's
albums. The grand scale of the stage and theatre alone
serve to draw much more than his usual whisper from
Beam, in "Sodom, South Georgia" and "Cinder and
Smoke". Gradually, more members of Calexico join him
on stage and the sound gets larger, with Joey Burns
taking the lead vocals for "Prison on Route 41" to a
fanfare by trumpeters. By way of interlude, the guest
mariachi, Salvador Duran, plays solo. He stamps his
feet, clicks his tongue, and adds animal sounds into
his hypnotic guitar serenades.

Calexico then immerses the crowd in a grand ambience,
weaving through noir guitar riffs and jazz structures
with glimmering flat steel guitar, adorned with
trumpet flourishes and punctuated with elaborate
rhythms. They create an iconic road-movie soundscape,
which crosses borders and cultures, picking up
characters and instruments along the way. Yet Burns'
clear country melod-ies and the band's slick
professionalism veer dangerously close to MOR.

"Across the Wire" and "Sunken Waltz" are high points.
After Calexico's sparkling cover of Love's "Alone
Again Or" the gig comes full circle: Beam and his
sister return for "In the Reins" and Duran sings his
impassioned refrain. It's striking how seamless the
collaboration proves. Underlining both bands' alt.
status they play a laid-back, countrified rendition of
The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties".