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".

Calexico

* with Iron and Wine

Sat Apr 08   Hamburg, Germany - Fabrik
Sun Apr 09   Koln, Germany - Palladium
Tue Apr 11   San Francisco, CA - Ameoba
Wed Apr 12   Los Angeles, CA - Ameoba
Thu Apr 13   Seattle, WA - Easy Street (Queen Anne)

Sat Apr 15   Austin, TX - Emo's (Free Show)
Mon Apr 17   Chicago, IL - Tower Records (Clark
Tue Apr 18   New York, NY - Virgin Union Square
Fri Apr 21   Manchester, UK - Academy 1    *
Sat Apr 22   Bristol, UK - Academy *
Sun Apr 23   London, UK - The Forum *
Tue Apr 25   Frankfurt, Germany - Mousontrum *
Wed Apr 26   Utrecht, Netherland - Tivoli *
Thu Apr 27   Bourges, France - Printemps BourgesFest *
Fri Apr 28   Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal *
Sat Apr 29   Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio *
Sun Apr 30   Stockholm, Sweden - Berns *
Mon May 01   Oslo, Norway - Rockerfeller*
Tue May 02   Gothenburg, Sweden - Tradgarn *
Thu May 04   Berlin, Germany - Colombiahall*
Fri May 05   Munchen, Germany - Tonhalle*
Sat May 06   Graz, Austria - Orpheum    *
Sun May 07   Wien, Austria - Arena *
Tue May 09   Zagreb, Croatia - Pauk *
Wed May 10   Treviso, Italy - New Age *
Thu May 11   Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone *
Fri May 12   Luzern, Switzerland  - BOA Bar *
Sat May 13   Zurich, Switzerland - Volkhaus *
Sun May 14   Haarlem, Netherland - Patronaat *
Mon May 15   Krefeld, Germany     - Kulturfabrik *
Tue May 16   Eindhoven, Netherla - Effenaar *
Sat Aug 05   Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

April 11th, 2006

Calexico - Garden Ruin - CD/LP

--
www.last.fm/user/Erika_Herzog
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/bands_on_bloodshot_records
www.myspace.com/erika_herzog

tracklist:

1. love vigilantes
2. faded from the winter
3. sodom, south georgia
4. the trapeze swinger
5. the trapeze swinger (clean)
6. cinder and smoke
7. naked as we came

--
www.last.fm/user/Erika_Herzog
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/bands_on_bloodshot_records
www.myspace.com/erika_herzog

from:
http://www.chattanoogapulse.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/08/43e90f57e9628

New Music

by John M. James

February 08, 2006

With the left and right indignantly sneering at each
other over the Gordian knot of the Iraq war, I’ve
been waiting for a songwriter to succinctly sum up the
universal sorrow of the situation without pointing
fingers like a smarmy, self righteous lunatic.

So God bless the spit and vinegar of Graham Parker,
one of the world’s greatest songwriting treasures,
to get it right in a new song that I think everyone
can agree on with “2000 Funerals.” Reacting to the
escalating death toll in October, Parker penned this
somber masterpiece in reaction, and after performing
it live a few times, has decided to release the song,
as he says, “before the figure 2000 is a distant
memory.” Available only through iTunes and eMusic:
if you’ve never taken the plunge and purchased a
downloadable single, now’s the time to give it a
try, and breathe deeply in this haunting statement, no
matter what side of the fence you’re dug in on…

Another digital-only release worthy of your attention
arrived earlier this week, benefiting Mercy Corps’
rebuilding of New Orleans. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has
recorded six different versions of Joseph Arthur’s
“In the Sun,” one of which, recorded with Chris
Martin of Coldplay, will be heard during this
Sunday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Other
versions include a remix by Justin Timberlake, a live
take from Austin City Limits, and an “acoustic couch
rehearsal” with Arthur himself. Backing the sessions
are guests James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and A
Perfect Circle, and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of
Wayne…

Matador Records has announced a nifty new “singles
club” to promote the return of Mission of Burma and
their upcoming The Obliterati album in May. Those who
sign up will receive a different 12” single each
week for eight weeks, with an accompanying CD single
to follow a few weeks later. Hurray for the postal
person! Each 12” single will be a one-sided affair,
with the flip side showcasing a vinyl etching by
artist Shepard Fairey, best known for his Andre the
Giant stickers covering every urban landscape…

One of the smartest music zines on the shelf has
issued its new volume of highbrow interviews and
top-notch artwork, packaged again with a CD of
previously unreleased rarities. Worth searching for,
Yeti #3 is a gorgeous publication that’s more a book
than a magazine at 244 pages inside its cool metallic
cover, sporting an previously unseen 1997 conversation
with William S. Burroughs, interviews with Neko Case
and Devendra Banhart, assorted comics, and the design
work of Galaxie 500 bassist Naomi Yang.

Worth twice the price is the enclosed CD of 27 tracks
from Dead Science, Terrified Kid, Iron & Wine, The
Apes, The Postal Service, Blues Goblins, The Robot Ate
Me and one nifty cover – Colin Meloy of The
Decemberists and his live take on Morrissey’s
“Everyday Is Like Sunday.”

--
www.last.fm/user/Erika_Herzog
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/bands_on_bloodshot_records
www.myspace.com/erika_herzog

from:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-02/08.shtml

Iron & Wine and Calexico Announce European Tour

Kati Llewellyn reports:
Welp, it's about that time of the year again. Nope,
not Valentine�s Day. It�s international Iron &
Wine/Calexico Tour Announcement Day!

The soulmates will tour Europe in April, in support of
last year�s collaborative EP In the Reins on
Overcoat. They will be joined by vocalist/flamenco
guitarist Salvador Duran for the entire trek.

Dates:

04-21 Manchester, England - Academy
04-22 Bristol, Engalnd - Academy
04-23 London, England - Forum
04-25 Frankfurt. Germany - Mousonturm
04-26 Utrecht, Netherlands, Tivoli
04-27 Bourges, France - Le Printemps de Bourges
04-28 Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal
04-29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio
04-30 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns
05-01 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
05-02 Gothenburg, Sweden - Tr�dg�rn
05-04 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
05-05 M�nchen, Germany - TonHalle
05-06 Graz, Austria - Orpheum
05-07 Wien, Austria, Arena Wien
05-09 Zagreb, Croatia - Pauk
05-10 Treviso, Italy - New Age
05-11 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone
05-12 Lucerne, Switzerland - Boa
05-13 Z�rich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
05-14 Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
05-15 Krefeld, Germany - Kulturfabrik
05-16 Eindhoven, Netherlands - Effenaar

Though the two bands seem to get along swimmingly,
they need to do their own thing on occasion. Just
yesterday, Iron & Wine released Live Session, an
iTunes exclusive EP. Session, which features both Sam
Beam and his sister Sarah, includes tracks from 2004's
Our Endless Numbered Days, a previously
soundtrack-only cut ("Trapeze Swinger"), and a cover
of New Order's "Love Vigilantes".

Tracklist:

01 Love Vigilantes
02 Faded From the Winter
03 Sodom, South Georgia
04 The Trapeze Swinger (Clean)
05 The Trapeze Swinger
06 Cinder and Smoke
07 Naked As We Came

Calexico, as previously reported, will release their
upcoming album, Garden Ruin, on Quarterstick come
April 11. When Pitchfork spoke with frontman Joey
Burns in December, he gave us a taste test of what's
to come, explaining, "I guess it kind of sounds
different from previous records. The Southwestern
element is downplayed more on this release. It's
focusing more on the songs themselves. There's no
instrumentals on this record."

They�ll play a couple of dates in Germany in April
sans Iron & Wine. And those are�

04-08 Hamburg, Germany - Fabrik
04-09 K�ln, Germany - Palladium *

* with Tocotronic, the Revs

* Pitchfork Review: Iron & Wine/Calexico: In the Reins
EP
* Pitchfork News: Iron & Wine/Calexico Kick Off Tour
* Pitchfork News: Joey Burns Talks New Calexico Album
* Iron & Wine: http://ironandwine.com/
* Calexico: http://www.casadecalexico.com/

--
www.last.fm/user/Erika_Herzog
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/bands_on_bloodshot_records
www.myspace.com/erika_herzog

there's a nice picture up there along with this article....

from:  http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=3851

Iron & Wine and Calexico:
Rolling Indie Thunder
By Jonah Bayer

This past fall, Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino and Iron &
Wine's Sam Beam embarked on a 13-date tour (sponsored by Harp) to
celebrate the recording of their collaborative EP, In the Reins. The
tour was replete with special guests, last-minute additions and one
near fistfight. If you weren't lucky enough to witness the tour
firsthand, these artist testimonials are the next best thing.

"I met Joey Burns a few years ago, when my band played a show at a
venue called Solar Culture in Tucson, Ariz. He was immediately kind
and courteous and gave me and the band a wonderful tour around town.
Around that time, a mutual friend of ours suggested that we make some
kind of collaborative recording for his label, Overcoat. We all
committed pretty quickly to the project but could never seem to clear
our schedules until last December. The session was so much fun that
it seemed to be over as soon as it had begun. I can easily say that
I've never worked with a more talented group of people in my life,
and I will always cherish Joey's friendship and his wonderful ear for
music." Sam Beam

"Originally, we were going to record In the Reins with just Sam and
John Convertino, but once we knew Sam was into the idea of adding
more instruments to the recordings, we started calling in the other
members of Calexico, who happened to be in town prior to a tour. The
whole process was very organic and seemed to take shape as we all
began playing in the studio, not having any preconceptions to blind
us, but rather enjoying the true spirit of spontaneity." Joey Burns

"I did two songs with these guys--the first was the
Minutemen's 'Jesus and Tequila' with Calexico--Joey and his crew did
it up real good, and it was the first time I've played it in 20
years. The second tune I was on was near the end, with both Calexico
and Iron & Wine playing together. Unlike 'Tequila,' both me and
Calexico's bassist were playing together--he gave me his bass for the
Minutemen tune and played cowbell, I think!" Mike Watt

"I got a call from Iron & Wine and Calexico's tour manager the day of
their show here in San Francisco. He asked if I'd like to join the
band at the Warfield for a few songs. The show started at around
eight and was sort of a musical-chairs event for the next four hours.
A highlight for me was guest comedian Neil Hamburger. The audience
hated him--a girl even leaped up from the crowd and attempted to
attack him--but we all stood at the side of the stage, laughing."
Mark Kozelek

"I was tacked onto the bill in San Francisco, to try and keep the
ball rolling for these bands by telling some jokes and gags to the
mostly teenaged audience. Well, it didn't work out. A few minutes
into my set, a disgruntled young woman leaped onto the stage with
fire in her eyes--which I immediately doused out with my drink. This
provoked more booing, harsh words were exchanged, and the entire
night was ruined for all of us. I later encountered both bands
weeping backstage." Neil Hamburger

"I was unbelievably grateful to be there, because besides from it
being a big love-in, it was also kind of great because I got to play
in front of people who [normally] wouldn't give me the time of the
day." David Bazan

"I was visiting my folks in Texas when I got the call to do those
shows. They needed me to play solo, so that's what I did. They paid
me well and bought me those plane tickets and fed me and put me in
hotels, loaned me a guitar, the whole bit. I sure don't get that
kinda treatment every day as a musician." Edith Frost

First printed in Jan/Feb 2006

it was recorded.  we're just waiting for someone to
convert it so we can share.
http://www.passingafternoon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=433


--- Michael Kroeker <woldemar@...> wrote:

> Did anyone tape this performance?  I'd love to have
> a copy for my library.  I was on a plane at
> the time, and was unable to get home in time to tape
> it.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Did anyone tape this performance?  I'd love to have a copy for my library.  I
was on a plane at
the time, and was unable to get home in time to tape it.

Thanks!

from:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15864567&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=4840\
45&rfi=6


Music
South by southwest
By Eric Waggoner
01/04/2006

At long last, Florida’s Iron & Wine meets
Arizona’s Calexico

The American highway is dotted with tollbooths and
coffee shops, small stops and oases alongside the vast
scrolls of patchy asphalt that unite us all. And
it’s here, between refueling and stopping to
stretch, that we find Calexico drummer John
Convertino, making his way from Washington, D.C., to
Asbury Park, New Jersey, after which he’ll continue
north, then back through the Midwest, on Calexico’s
15-city tour with Sam Beam’s whispery,
weird-Americana project Iron & Wine.

Calexico, with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam (center):
Mutual fans who recently united for a seven-song CD.

On paper it seems like the most bizarre pairing
imaginable, the spooky, understated Iron & Wine with
Calexico, the Tucson, Arizona,
Morricone-by-way-of-mariachi powerhouse combo. But
spin In the Reins, the bands’ collaborative release
on Chicago’s Overcoat label, and the picture snaps
into place like an Escher drawing — disorienting at
first, but possessed of its own skewed and lovely
logic.

Actually, this pairing of one of the year’s most
popular indie-rock acts — that’d be the
unprepossessing Beam — and a critics’-favorite
band with nowhere near the popular esteem it deserves,
was a long time coming. Beam, who infamously released
an album’s worth of home-recorded demos as his debut
disc on Sub Pop, had initially wanted Calexico to work
as the backing group for that project.

“Which was something I’d never heard about, until
we started doing press [for In the Reins],”
Convertino says, laughing. “But it wasn’t as weird
as it might sound. We’ve done a lot of that kind of
work over the years — soundtrack stuff,
collaborative sessions with various singers — and we
work really hard at finding an appropriate sound for
the voices we play under. For a long time, especially
when it was just me and Joey, we were an instrumental
group anyway. So it’s not a terrific stretch.”

Back in 1996, when Calexico was only Convertino and
guitarist Joey Burns, the duo’s moody blend of
multi-instrumental soundscapes caught the attention of
fellow outsiders Vic Chesnutt, Barbara Manning,
Victoria Williams, and Lisa Germano, among others, all
of whom tapped Calexico for session work. Intuitive as
well as educated players (Burns studied in
UC-Irvine’s classical music program before moving to
Tucson), Convertino and Burns developed a musical
style deeply rooted in the border culture of the
American Southwest, drawing from film scores and
Mexican folk, indie rock, and bombastic Latin jazz.

“And Sam takes that same sort of approach, that
visual approach to the music,” Convertino says.
“Iron & Wine’s music always sounded very cinematic
to me, so when we were able to get together,
everything clicked really quickly.”

Overcoat founder Howard Reynolds, Convertino reports,
provided the catalyst for the project. After
shepherding a collaborative project with Will Oldham
and Tortoise, Reynolds approached Calexico and Beam
about scheduling studio time.

“And the thing that was weird, was that we both had
just enough time to do it. Calexico had just come off
the tour for [2003’s] Feast of Wire, and Sam had the
songs already written. He sent us a demo recording,
and we worked off of that. So when we finally went
into [Tucson’s] Wavelab Studios to record, it
didn’t take long at all. Joey and Sam and I put the
basic tracks down, and the whole thing was done, with
overdubs and everything, in four days.”

The finished In the Reins is a warm and spontaneous
disc, a collaborative project in the truest sense,
even though the songs are all Beam’s. The minor-key
opener, “He Lays In the Reins,” treads familiar
Iron & Wine territory in its blending of bucolic
unease and weary sympathy (“One more kiss
tonight/From some tall stable girl/She’s like grace
from the earth/When you’re all tuckered out and
tame”). But a third-verse Spanish guest vocal from
Tuscon flamenco performer Salvador Duran adds a layer
of complexity absent from any previous Beam release,
as does the persistent pedal steel and banjo interplay
on the haunting “Prison on Route 41.”

The album’s most purely collaborative track, the
giddy “A History of Lovers,” is a soulful
roll-call of busted hearts and bad moves, driven by a
low-end acoustic riff and Convertino’s snapping
snare. “Cuddle some men, they’ll remember you
bitterly/fuck ’em, they’ll come back for more,”
Beam sings, sounding less resigned than happily
smart-assed. It’s a charming moment, one that’s
hard to imagine in the context of a separate release
from either band, but plays to the strengths of each
— Calexico’s watertight musicianship and Beam’s
ear for the language of unsentimental romance.

In support of In the Reins, Calexico and Beam have
embarked on a series of regional tours with a rotating
roster of supporting acts and special guests,
including singer-songwriter Edith Frost and Beam’s
sister (and sometime collaborator) Sarah. Iron &
Wine’s current popularity among the college-radio
and indie-rock set seems to provide the crowd’s
base, suspects Convertino, whose shows with Calexico
are famously rowdy affairs.

“The audiences have been amazing — what astonishes
me is how quiet they are, how respectful. And I think
that’s partially because Sam’s fans are used to
listening closely to the music. All the shows we’ve
done so far have been really, really incredible
evenings.”

It has been a busy year for both acts — Iron & Wine
released the Woman King EP in February, and
Calexico’s next studio album is slated for spring
2006 — but In the Reins stands on its merits as a
joint project, and the players remain as high on the
music as fans seem to be.

“Most of the shows are sold out,” Convertino says.
“The tour is probably introducing us to Iron & Wine
fans, rather than the other way around. But we’ve
got a tour scheduled for Europe soon, and we’ve
always had a wider fan base in Europe. I’m not sure
whether Sam’s toured overseas yet.” He laughs
again. “Maybe we can flip the tables on him.” •

©San Antonio Current 2006

from:  http://www.popmatters.com/music/concerts/c/calexico-
051211.shtml

CALEXICO + IRON AND WINE
11 December 2005: Congress Theater � Chicago
Calexico's wind-swept desert epics combined with Iron and Wine's soft
southern lilt in an evening that saw cowboy poetry, blues murder
ballads, and folk laments fleshed out by stirring twang.

by Timothy G. Merello

Anyone who has been to my cramped apartment -- which is lined with
shelves of books, records, and compact discs -- knows that I tend to
fret unduly over alphabetization and categorization. For years I have
been stymied by tough calls like where to put Howlin' Wolf ("H" for
Howlin', "W" for Wolf comma Howlin', or "B" for Chester Burnett, his
birth name?).

Calexico and Iron and Wine's new collaborative release In the Reins
has me vexed, not over questions of the alphabet. Rather, I'm
debating genre issues. Is it a Calexico record with Sam Beam as guest
vocalist? Would it better be described as Iron and Wine with Calexico
as a backing band? After giving the disc many listens, the answer
seems to be squarely in the middle. The record is a true
collaboration, marrying Calexico's wind-swept desert epics with Iron
and Wine's soft southern lilt. Beam's pen crafts cowboy poetry, blues
murder ballads, and folk laments are fleshed out by the stirring
twang and sienna-stained country rock of the Calexicans.

The two groups saddled their steeds and rode their "In the Reins"
tour into Chicago's Congress Theater, putting on an extravaganza akin
to The Last Waltz, but without the air of finality.

I had never been to the Congress, a giant old-fashioned theater that
in its heyday must've been a grand palace. When I got there it seemed
cold and foreboding. Its red velvet seats were tattered, its
elaborate dome crumbling, and its fancy friezes and facades peeling.

Perched high in the upper balcony, I settled in as Calexico opened
the night with a new song. The tune stepped above the expected
Morricone orchestrations, desert rumble, and mariachi fanfare,
turning in a more '70s California country-rock direction, one that
borrowed from bands like the Burrito Brothers and the Byrds. Staying
with the sounds of '70s sunset rock, Joey Burns led the boys
through "Not Even Stevie Nicks�". I'm not sure if it was the
Congress' cavernous size, but these first two numbers saw Calexico
sounding a bit hollow, a tad small.

"Sonic Wind" was quick to come, however, and saw Burns's picaro
guitar picking, Paul Niehaus's spooky pedal steel, and John
Convertino's thunderstorm drumming. Finally the band cast a full-on
wall of sound. In counterpoint to the roar were Jacob Valenzuela's
muffled and muted trumpet solo, a lonesome call answered by Martin
Wenk's ghostly vibraphone, and Convertino's sandpapering and
scratching of the beat with a soft drum brush.

Over their scant 45 minutes, Calexico was in peak form, bathing both
new ("It's Too Late"), and old ("Alone Again Or") in their sonic
shimmer, mixing trumpet blasts, artillery drums, gunslinger guitar,
and swirling psychedelic sounds. Their musical m�lange reached its
denouement during their final tune, "Guero Canelo", where Calexico
was joined by the Iron and Wine rhythm and percussion section,
Mexican flamenco guitarist, dancer and singer Salvador Duran, and
Chicago's Doug McCombs of Eleventh Dream Day and Tortoise. Here was a
taste of the grand experiment to come. Ten players gathered to create
a tsunami of sound with swirling, dancing acoustic guitar, slinky
sultry bongos, congas, maracas and timbales, funky fuzzbox electric
guitars, and a swagger of bass and drum. Calexico had stirred the
crowd to a fever pitch and we were ready for the greater heights to
come.

After an unexpected and uneven -- nay, forgettable -- set by Red Red
Meat, Iron and Wine took the stage. As with the last time I saw them,
the first few songs were duets between singer/songwriter Sam Beam and
his sister Sarah. Their soft, lithe vocal harmonies fell like the
dying embers of "cinder and smoke." Beam plucked and strummed his
guitar sharing cascading, eddying riffs while he and Sarah's cooed
ooh-aahs and ai-yi-yis blanketed the music with a warm wispy spirit.
By the time Beam proceeded to "Jezebel" he had his full band onstage,
with Patrick McKinney supplying electric guitar and piano, and E.J.
Holowicki providing brushed drums and echoing tom-tom beats.

With a host of musicians at his disposal, Beam gladly invited Burns,
Convertino, Paul Niehaus and even Red Red Meat guitarist Tim Rutili
on stage for "On Your Wings" from Our Endless Numbered Days. Beam's
Southern gothic imagist song became even more spooky and eerie as
Rutili wailed a bluesy guitar moan, and Burns and McKinney traded
screeching guitar licks that were answered by Niehaus's murderous
pedal-steel twang.

Beam would return to his sparse and stripped line-up for "Sodom,
South Georgia" and "My Lady's House," awash in the ache and echo of
pattering footfalls, rumbling percussion and waltzing violin.
For "Woman King", much of Calexico and Iron and Wine came back on
stage. Starting slowly with the ambient breathy vibraphone work of
Martin Wenk and Niehaus's sweet crying steel, the song then picked up
its stomping beat peppered with Beam's acoustic guitar and Sarah
Beam's graceful violin. Each musician pushed the others to broaden
and expand the big, boss beat.

And now, the crowd was ready, for the bands to truly combine. They
erupted into a roar as the two groups launched into the title track
of their combined record, with its loping, galloping rhythms and
rollicking guitars. Guest Salvador Duran drew the loudest roar as he
tapped and danced a Flamenco beat on the hardwood floor, and then
delivered his grand stentorian tenor for his verse of the song.

If it wasn't clear earlier in the night, the meshing of the bands was
a rich blend of the dust-covered western sparkle and shine with lazy
laconic kudzu folk poetry. The "Calexiwine" orchestra turned the
Congress into a backwoods Mississippi juke joint on "Red Dust", with
midnight moaning harmonica, rolling and tumbling church organ, and a
mean and nasty blues guitar. Stretching above the recorded version,
the band kept it rocking with a sexy swagger, kicking heavy on the
downbeat, screeching guitars in search of the Devil at the
crossroads.

With but a mere seven songs on "In the Reins", I imagined that the
grand group jam would be short and sweet. Beam and Burns delighted,
however, with a surprising cover of the Velvet Underground's "All
Tomorrow's Parties". No longer a New York hipster rocker, the song
dwelled in the playful plink and fervent honky-tonk hustle of country
and blues. Squealing bottleneck guitar augmented a heavy driving
backbeat while Jacob Valenzuela interlaced a funerary coda on
trumpet.

As predicted, the night ended far too quickly. The crowd was left
howling and happy, wishing and wanting more of this tasty
tessellation of Southern folkloric storytelling and desert ghost town
cinematic sounds. This night of musical collaboration, far from a
last waltz, seems but the first tentative dance steps of a moony-eyed
couple drunk on the shimmer of the crepuscule.

� 3 January 2006

Friday, Jan. 6 - CBS | Late Late Show
Iron & Wine | Calexico will perform this Friday on the
CBS Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

from:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Music/The_Spin/2005/12/22/The_Spin/in\
dex.shtml

The Spin

Photo

Yawn-inducing Samuel Beam of Iron and Wine at Cannery
Ballroom.

Iron and Yawn

What looked like all of Nashville’s hipster nation
(and the OC generation) turned out to see Samuel Beam,
a.k.a. Iron and Wine, play with Calexico last Thursday
night at the Cannery Ballroom. Unfortunately, we
missed most of Calexico’s set, which most people
agreed was the highlight of the evening. After
enjoying the little bit we did hear of their complex,
dynamic music, listening to Iron and Wine was like
getting smothered slowly with a feather pillow. For an
artist who relies so heavily on intimacy with his
listeners, Beam displayed no emotional range or
charisma, mumbling into the mic and creating a
mind-numbingly monochromatic sound. We’re not saying
quiet can’t be powerful, but first you have to get
people’s attention. Perhaps we would have
appreciated him more in a smaller venue, particularly
one where a good chunk of the audience wasn’t
chattering away all evening. At one point we squirmed
our way through the rapidly depleting crowd to mingle
with the die-hards and see if we could catch on to
what they were so excited about. But when we looked to
our right and actually saw a girl yawn into her Miller
Lite, that was it.

Calexico returned to the stage for the second half of
Beam’s set and things picked up a bit. (They
recently collaborated on the EP In the Reins.) As the
show wound down, we had a moment of self-doubt; maybe
it wasn’t Beam, it was us. Maybe we had missed
something, maybe we could have made a grander effort
to block out the noise and listen to the lyrics. Or
maybe we just aren’t deep enough, perhaps too
emotionally closed off for his subtlety. But then we
realized that rock shows just shouldn’t be that
hard, a point confirmed by the large number of people
who paid over $20 to get in the door and couldn’t be
bothered to stick around.

from:  http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=1001736286

Indie Favorites Pay Tribute To Will Oldham

December 21, 2005, 12:30 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon leader Mark Kozelek, Calexico, Iron &
Wine, the Impossible Shapes, Scout Niblett, Jolie Holland, Pinetop
Seven and the Court and Spark are among the acts contributing tracks
to the Will Oldham tribute album "I Am a Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass."

The 17-track set is due next month via the Indiana-based label Tract
Records, which previously issued some of these tracks as part of a
highly limited double-disc collection in August 2004. That edition is
now out of print.

Kozelek renders "New Partner" (from Palace's classic 1995 album "Viva
Last Blues") in his familiar solo acoustic style, while Calexico
drapes violin and desert rock ambience over "I Send My Love to You."
Elsewhere, Iron & Wine's bare-bones cover of "We All, Us Three, Will
Ride" demonstrates the influence Oldham's music has had on a decade's
worth of singer/songwriters.

Having just released the live album "Summer in the Southeast" via his
Bonnie "Prince" Billy alter-ego, Oldham has begun lining up shows for
2006, including a five-date tour of Scotland that begins April 10 in
Aberdeen.

As previously reported, Oldham also teams with Chicago instrumental
rock act Tortoise for the collaborative covers album, "The Brave and
the Bold," due Jan. 24 via Overcoat.


Here is the track list for "I Am a Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass":

"New Partner," Mark Kozelek
"Disorder," Moyra McBride and Maxon Blewitt
"Riding," the Strugglers
"A Sucker's Evening," Boy Omega
"I Was Drunk at the Pulpit," Jolie Holland
"Rider," Impossible Shapes
"I Send My Love to You," Calexico
"A Minor Place," Pinetop Seven
"Ohio River Boat Song," Elephant Micah
"Southside of the World," Sodastream
"May It Always Be," Pink Nasty
"The Sun Highlights the Lack in Each," the Court and Spark
"We All, Us Three, Will Ride," Iron & Wine
"Careless Love," Racingpaperplanes
"When They Song Flows Through Me," Viking Moses
"You Will Miss Me When I Burn," Rivulets
"For the Mekons, Et Al," Unbunny
"Trudy Dies," Scout Niblett

from:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0551,ayers,71129,22.html

The Sound of The City
Rolling Asunder
Trumpet-lace Tex-Mex rockers give a boost to an indie
Jesus
by Mike Ayers
December 19th, 2005 5:25 PM


Iron and Wine + Calexico
Webster Hall
December 5
A no-depressionist's wet dream come true, the Iron and
Wine–meets-Calexico pairing came through New York
for an ambitious three nights, billing themselves as a
modern-day "Band meets Dylan." Calexico assumed the
role of Robbie Robertson and company, and Sam Beam was
Bob, but let's face it: The Last Waltz and the Rolling
Thunder Revue tour are crowning achievements in a
longstanding collaborative folk-country tradition, and
no one is gonna touch them soon.

Calexico's 45 minutes of trumpet-laced Tex-Mex indie
desert-rock had leader Joey Burns trying to pump up
onlookers via any method possible: band introductions,
Love's "Alone Again Or," even an operatic Mexican
sideman named Salvador Duran helping out with
authentic maracas and Spanish interludes. The kids
weren't having it, though. They wanted their bearded
savior, the purveyor of all things quiet.

Beam was greeted as if he were the Second Coming. And
yes, his unkempt facial hair and, I guess, his
spiritualized lyrics do invoke a certain Jesus
quality. What was refreshing at Webster Hall, though,
wasn't his appearance, his soft-spoken whispery
delivery, or the chicks yelling, "Take your scarf
off!" No, those remain constant. But he'd developed
new arrangements for his older songs: "Woman King" was
grittier, recited in an almost angry tone; "Naked"
sounded soft and sweet as ever, but Rob Burger (of the
defunct Tin Hat Trio) threw in some klezmer-ready
accordion.

When time came for Calexi-wine to form, Beam loosened
up, forgot about the idiot hecklers, and instead fed
off of Burns's endearing enthusiasm in providing
rhythm guitar and backup vocals. On the EP they
released this past fall, Burns's vocals tend toward
the nonexistent, but tonight was different —although
never really a "take charge" guy, he sure took charge
here, most notably for the sleepy pedal-steel ballad
"Prison on Route 41." Covers lined the set, with Beam
expertly taking the lead on both "All Tomorrow's
Parties" and "Ain't No Sunshine." Such collabs run the
risk of feeling forced (anyone remember Amsterjam?)
but this pair's humility is what sells them.

from:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100169939\
0

Calexico Emerges From New 'Garden'
December 15, 2005, 3:40 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

While it reaps in critical acclaim for its
collaborative album and tour with Iron & Wine, veteran
rock act Calexico has put the finishing touches on its
next studio set. Due April 11 via Quarterstick, the
11-track "Garden Ruin" was produced by J.D. Foster,
who has worked with everyone from Dwight Yoakam and
Marc Ribot to Nancy Sinatra and Alejandro Escovedo.

"The songs have that moodiness and ambience, but
there's also some more electric, rockin' numbers,"
group member Joey Burns told Billboard.com this summer
of the new material.

Indeed, there are a few more overt rock moments on
"Garden Ruin" than usual, particularly on the
sprightly "Letter to Bowie Knife" and the Crazy
Horse-tinged second half of the six-minute album
closer "All Systems Red."

But for the most part, the album boasts another
helping of the group's signature desert rock sound,
from the hushed, largely acoustic "Yours and Mine" to
the soulful, string-flecked "Bisbee Blue."

"Garden Ruin" is the follow-up to 2003's "Feast of
Wire," which debuted at a career-best No. 23 on
Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart. The
Calexico/Iron & Wine album, "In the Reins" (Overcoat)
was even more successful, opening at No. 2 on the
Heatseekers tally and No. 12 on Top Independent
Albums.

The two acts' supporting tour will wrap tomorrow (Dec.
16) in Atlanta and will resume in Europe next spring.
To close out the year, Calexico will play two shows
with Mariachi Luz de Luna and Nick Luca on Dec. 22 in
Los Angeles and Dec. 30 in Tucson. Three showcase gigs
are also on tap for Jan. 24 in New York, Jan. 26 in
Los Angeles and Jan. 29 in San Francisco.

As previously reported, Burns and Calexico mate John
Convertino guest on Neko Case's upcoming Anti- album,
"Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," due March 7.

Here is the track list for "Garden Ruin":

"Cruel"
"Yours and Mine"
"Bisbee Blue"
"Panic Open String"
"Letter to Bowie Knife"
"Roka"
"Lucky Dime"
"Smash
"Deep Down"
"Nom De Plume"
"All Systems Red"

from:
http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00112440.html

  Indie Rockers Spread Collaborative Spirit
Staff and agencies
15 December, 2005



By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer 37 minutes ago

NEW YORK — One is a spaghetti western, the other a
Southern folkie.

Playing packed shows across the country in moderately
sized venues, the two groups have led a tour, soon to
conclude, of indie rock cross-pollination, inviting
guests along the way in the style of Bob Dylan ‘s
famed 1975 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour or The
Band‘s collaborative "Last Waltz" concert.

In New York, banjo-playing Sufjan Stevens came aboard.
In Los Angeles, it was bassist Mike Watts, formerly of
the

80s post-punk band the Minutemen. James Mercer from
the Shins came along in Portland, Ore.

The collaboration began with "In the Reins," a
seven-song album released earlier this year by
Calexico and Iron and Wine, featuring songs written by
Beam and played with Calexico arrangements.

A Florida native, the bearded Beam — more amusing
and mischievous than his songs would suggest —
worked as a film instructor in the late

90s in Miami, recording lo-fi basement tapes in his
spare time. Beam has since released two critically
acclaimed albums featuring his gentle whispers and
acoustic strumming.

He is modest enough to only sheepishly acknowledge
that he painted the watercolor cover of "In the Reins"
— and doesn‘t appear to be very possessive of his
tunes, either. His two greatest songs, "Jezebel" and
"The Trapeze Swinger," aren‘t even included on a
proper album — the former on his "Woman King" EP
earlier this year, and the latter on the soundtrack to
the Dennis Quaid comedy "In Good Company."

They‘ve done session work with singers like Richard
Buckner and Vic Chesnutt . But the band has grown in
popularity on its own, especially since its 2003
album, "Feast of Wire."

Originally, there was thinking that Burns and
Convertino could be the backing band for Iron and
Wine‘s debut, but they weren‘t able to get
together until "In the Reins."

Beam, songwriting poet, and Calexico, masters of
instrumentation, turned out a good match.

In concert, Calexico opens with a set, which segues
into a few numbers from Mexican singer Salvador Duran,
a south-of-the-border Pavarotti who was performing at
the lobby of the Tucson hotel where Beam stayed while
recording with Calexico. He ended up singing a grand,
powerful verse on the album‘s first track, "He Lays
in the Reins."

When the two bands first unite on stage — numbering
13 strong, including Duran — to play the sweeping
"He Lays in the Reins," the fullness of sound gives an
unmistakable feeling of triumph, as if it‘s the
climax of a film — maybe a rock ‘n‘ roll version
of "Buena Vista Social Club."

Above all, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Duran and other
guests — in a musical world so divided by genre and
classification — give a sense of inclusion.

Burns says the audience response has had a spark to
it, and that the concerts feel special, both to the
crowd and the musicians.

"The fact that there‘s a community, you kind of get
lost easier," he says. "Talking to different people,
going off on adventures, musically or otherwise, or
trying different things with arrangements of songs."

Clearly, the groups have affected each other. Beam has
begun playing new versions of some songs, including an
exciting, up-tempo arrangement of "Jezebel."
Calexico‘s next album, "Garden Ruin," due April 11,
is the band‘s most vocals-centered effort yet.

Though the North America leg of their tour is coming
to a close, they will spend several months in Europe
in April and May touring together. After that, surely
to the disappoint of many, they have no plans to
continue the collaboration.

"We approached it from the beginning as a one-off kind
of thing," Beam says. "But you never know."

___

On the Net:

http://www.casadecalexico.com/

http://www.ironandwine.com/

from:
http://www.rctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/ENTERTAINMENT0102/512\
150305/1005/MTCN0303

Thursday, 12/15/05
Iron & Wine enthralls

Singer's collaboration with Calexico is a wondrous
effort

Sam Beam, who performs under the band name Iron &
Wine, is something of an accidental hero in the
indie-rock world. He mostly made music in his Florida
home (he's since moved to Dripping Springs, Texas) and
circulated his hushed, acoustic, lo-fi tapes among
friends.

"I had a serious skepticism for the music industry in
general," Beam said. "I started doing it where I was
the only real audience member, and I was trying to
write something interesting for myself. Now, I still
try to keep that to heart."


A friend of a friend liked the music though, and that
fellow headed up Sub Pop Records, and in 2002 an Iron
& Wine album — actually just a gathering of Beam's
home recordings — called The Creek Drank the Cradle
was released on Sub Pop.

"I guess it wasn't until the reaction to that first
record when I started playing shows," he said.

Since then, Beam's lovely, poetic, idiosyncratic music
has become a critical favorite. His version of Such
Great Heights (from the Garden State soundtrack) is
even featured in an M&Ms commercial.

This year, Beam teamed with pals in expansive group
Calexico to make an wondrous little EP called In the
Reins, which sets Iron & Wine's plaintive melodies and
imagistic lyrics to imaginative soundscapes.

"The spirit of the project was to jump in whole hog,"
Beam said. "The album is all my songs, but Calexico
brought their music and their technical expertise.
Their ears are amazing."

Tonight at the Cannery Ballroom (1 Cannery Row,
251-3020), Iron & Wine and Calexico will team for a
live performance that will also feature
vocalist/flamenco guitarist Salvador Duran. Expect a
lengthy and satisfying night of music. Tickets for
this 8:30 p.m. show are $22.

— PETER COOPER, STAFF WRITER

from:
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/stories/WHAS11_LOCAL_Iron&Wine.d1f1ab5.html

Calexico and Iron and Wine spread collaborative spirit

06:18 PM EST on Wednesday, December 14, 2005

By JAKE COYLE / AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK—One is a spaghetti western, the other a
Southern folkie.

But despite their differences—or perhaps because of
them— Calexico (a Tucson, Ariz. band that mixes rock
riffs with Mariachi rhythms) and Iron and Wine (a
group that’s essentially singer-songwriter Samuel
Beam) have formed one of this year’s most
interesting collaborations.

Playing packed shows across the country in moderately
sized venues, the two groups have led a tour, soon to
conclude, of indie rock cross-pollination, inviting
guests along the way in the style of Bob Dylan’s
famed 1975 “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour or The
Band’s collaborative “Last Waltz” concert.

In New York, banjo-playing Sufjan Stevens came aboard.
In Los Angeles, it was bassist Mike Watts, formerly of
the ‘80s post-punk band the Minutemen. James Mercer
from the Shins came along in Portland, Ore.

“We try to invite guests out to make the show that
much more special, to get outside of your own path,”
says Joey Burns, Calexico frontman.

The collaboration began with “In the Reins,” a
seven-song album released earlier this year by
Calexico and Iron and Wine, featuring songs written by
Beam and played with Calexico arrangements.

Describing his musical tastes, Beam frames the
overarching theme of their venture: “There’s a lot
of music out there.”

A Florida native, the bearded Beam—more amusing and
mischievous than his songs would suggest—worked as a
film instructor in the late ‘90s in Miami, recording
lo-fi basement tapes in his spare time. Beam has since
released two critically acclaimed albums featuring his
gentle whispers and acoustic strumming.

He is modest enough to only sheepishly acknowledge
that he painted the watercolor cover of “In the
Reins”—and doesn’t appear to be very possessive
of his tunes, either. His two greatest songs,
“Jezebel” and “The Trapeze Swinger,” aren’t
even included on a proper album—the former on his
“Woman King” EP earlier this year, and the latter
on the soundtrack to the Dennis Quaid comedy “In
Good Company.”

Founded by Burns and drummer John Convertino, Calexico
has been around for nearly a decade. The group
includes horns, vibraphone and steel guitar. Usually,
half of its albums are instrumentals.

They’ve done session work with singers like Richard
Buckner and Vic Chesnutt. But the band has grown in
popularity on its own, especially since its 2003
album, “Feast of Wire.”

Burns jokes that it was an “Internet hook up” that
first got the bands together. In actuality it was
Howard Greynolds, the owner of Overcoat Records and a
friend of both, who had the idea for the
collaboration.

Originally, there was thinking that Burns and
Convertino could be the backing band for Iron and
Wine’s debut, but they weren’t able to get
together until “In the Reins.”

“It was a very natural and innocent thing that I
think I kept going (by getting them together),”
Greynolds says. “We never intended to tour, but when
we made the EP, everyone got on so well.”

Beam, songwriting poet, and Calexico, masters of
instrumentation, turned out a good match.

“I think we all have varied musical tastes and it
all kind of fits,” says Beam. “So that’s what we
try to get across—it’s kind of how you define your
genre of self.”

In concert, Calexico opens with a set, which segues
into a few numbers from Mexican singer Salvador Duran,
a south-of-the-border Pavarotti who was performing at
the lobby of the Tucson hotel where Beam stayed while
recording with Calexico. He ended up singing a grand,
powerful verse on the album’s first track, “He
Lays in the Reins.”

Iron and Wine then play a set of their own, often with
cameos from members of Calexico. Finally, together
they perform a set of “In the Reins” songs.

When the two bands first unite on stage—numbering 13
strong, including Duran—to play the sweeping “He
Lays in the Reins,” the fullness of sound gives an
unmistakable feeling of triumph, as if it’s the
climax of a film—maybe a rock ‘n’ roll version
of “Buena Vista Social Club.”

Above all, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Duran and other
guests—in a musical world so divided by genre and
classification—give a sense of inclusion.

Burns says the audience response has had a spark to
it, and that the concerts feel special, both to the
crowd and the musicians.

“The fact that there’s a community, you kind of
get lost easier,” he says. “Talking to different
people, going off on adventures, musically or
otherwise, or trying different things with
arrangements of songs.”

Clearly, the groups have affected each other. Beam has
begun playing new versions of some songs, including an
exciting, up-tempo arrangement of “Jezebel.”
Calexico’s next album, “Garden Ruin,” due April
11, is the band’s most vocals-centered effort yet.

Though the North America leg of their tour is coming
to a close, they will spend several months in Europe
in April and May touring together. After that, surely
to the disappoint of many, they have no plans to
continue the collaboration.

“We approached it from the beginning as a one-off
kind of thing,” Beam says. “But you never know.”

- - - - -

Calexico and Iron & Wine perform at Headliners
Wednesday night.

    ------

On the Net:

http://www.casadecalexico.com/

http://www.ironandwine.com/

from:  http://www.chromewaves.net/index.php?itemid=2052

Red Dust

I had been looking forward to last night's Iron & Wine and Calexico
show with equal parts anticipation and dread - the former because the
musical talents involved almost guaranteed an amazing show, and the
latter because that promise was pretty much overshadowed by the venue
they were scheduled to play, the dreaded Docks. Any and all
conversations with anyone in town about the show seemed to skip right
over the artists and go straight into, "oh god I hate the Docks". A
lot of people were willing to boycott the show for that reason alone,
and I was one of those at first. However promises that the hall would
be halved in size to create a more intimate setting and my
unwillingness to miss the show eventually persuaded me to buy a
ticket. I was hopeful and/or confident that the music and performance
would far outshine any problems with the venue itself. I like it when
I'm right.

I was a little surprised to hear folks in the audience asking, "so
who's opening?", since I was there as much to see Calexico as Iron &
Wine, maybe more. I appreciate that this was I&W's first time back in
Toronto since the whole Garden State thing opened up his fanbase
enormously, but I would have thought that even his fans would have an
understanding of the context of the In The Reins tour. Oh well.
Calexico, for my money, are one of the best live bands out there
right now and they certainly backed that reputation up last night.
Their set contained a fair bit of unknown material, presumably from
next year's Garden Ruin, but even if you're not familiar with the
songs there's plenty to enjoy in the musicianship and performance.
They were joined in the later part of their set by Salvador Duran,
who contributed the operatic vocals in the title track of In The
Reins, and after Calexcio finished he remained to do a short set of
Flamenco (actually, Joey Burns informed the crowd that his music
technically wasn't Flamenco, but originated from another part of
Mexico... I forget what he called it, though). It wouldn't be
untoward to say that Duran's presence was maybe the highlight of the
show - the man brought an intensity and dignity in his music that was
probably unfamiliar to the indie-rocking audience. I didn't
understand a word of it, but it was riveting nonetheless.

After Duran finished, there was a short break before Sam Beam and his
cohorts shuffled out onstage. It's funny that a guy so associated
with acoustic folk music would actually be sporting such a large
band - at one point, he had three drummers and percussionists behind
him and he himself was playing electric guitar. Blasphemy! The extra
instrumentation was mainly concentrated in the rhythm section -
melodically, it was still very much just his wonderfully soft voice
and guitar (as well as sister Sarah's harmonies and violin). The
weightier sound helped bring the material from the Woman King EP to
life, and when it came time to do the sparser, Endless Numbered Days
material, they dropped back leaving just Sam and Sarah to beguile the
audience. It was also marvelous to hear "The Trapeze Swinger" live,
far and away my favourite Iron & Wine song ever. As his set wound
down, Beam called out the members of Calexico (who had actually been
playing with him through his set) to come out for the final, In The
Reins portion of the show.

I liked In The Reins, but was a little disappointed that the
recordings didn't seem as transcendent as I thought the collaboration
could have been. Happily, the live show more than compensated. The
huge band arrangements, numbering up to eleven players at points,
really made the songs sound massive and stately, and again, Duran's
vocals during "He Lays In The Reins" got the audience roaring with
approval. For some reason, the set seemed to run a little bit shorter
than others on the tour meaning that numbers like "History Of Lovers"
and their cover of "Wild Horses" were omitted, but those are minor
complaints in light of how amazing the whole of the show was. And as
the icing on the cake, it was Joey Burns' birthday, an occasion
celebrated in the encore with a bottle of champagne.

So as hoped, the show was beautiful and amazing, and the venue?
Seriously? Not that bad at all. The sound was fantastic, as were the
lighting and projections, and the sightlines from where I was were
just fine. Mind you, I was in the second row... the stage was low
enough that I could imagine seeing would be a problem if you were at
the back, but what can you do. And my pictures turned out quite well.
The only real problem with the Docks, which I got to experience
fully, was the logistics of getting there and back. The vehicularly
enabled could pay $15 parking and walking types were stuck cabbing
it, at least $20 there and back from anywhere in downtown. But even
that wasn't such a big deal if you could even GET a cab - after the
show, I had walked about 2 km and 20 minutes to the Distillery
District before I could find a vacant cab. Not such a big deal if it
were Summer, but brutally cold and windy in December. Not fun. If I
ever end up going back there for anything, you're damn skippy that
I'm calling a cab in ahead of time.

from:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051209/CARL09/T\
PEntertainment/Music

going out: MUSIC
The tune whisperer

By CARL WILSON

Friday, December 9, 2005 Page R24

Not long ago, the mixed marriages of songs known as
mashups were the hot digital-music novelty, most
famously heard on producer Danger Mouse's The Grey
Album, which laid rapper Jay-Z's nodding noggin down
on the Beatles' durable musical divan.

MTV took a shot at glitzing up the concept with a
concert and album that blended Linkin Park with,
again, Jay-Z. The Grammys gave it a dodgier try with a
jam between Gwen Stefani, Franz Ferdinand and the
Black Eyed Peas. And then the whole craze seemed to
recede back into the Internet hobbyist zone where it
was done first and best.

The current crossover between indie musicians Calexico
and Iron and Wine lies somewhere between a mashup and
a traditional collaboration. The two do diverge
stylistically -- Calexico being a cinematic big band
and Iron and Wine mainly a guy with a guitar -- but
they also share a sepia-toned, retro sensibility.
Their recent joint mini-album, In the Reins, is based
on years-old Iron and Wine demos, which many fans will
have downloaded long ago. But the players gathered in
person in the studio to record the songs anew.

Iron and Wine, whose mama knows him as Florida-based
ex-film teacher Sam Beam, is a tune whisperer,
literally and figuratively: His susurrations seem to
leak out slowly from somewhere behind his generous
beard, like gas out of a pinprick-punctured hose; yet
in the process, he's able to entice wild songs to
sidle up, nuzzle at his neck and submit to be tamed.

He is one of those critic-proof artists whose fans
treat his releases like new chapters of scripture. The
first, 2002's The Creek Drank the Cradle, was a
rural-feeling batch of demo recordings, and while
there's been grumbling in the pews about the slicker
sound of his further releases, few have gone so far as
to up and quit the congregation. His cover version of
the Postal Service's Some Great Heights, on the Garden
State soundtrack, has even become something of an
indie classic.

Yet as a miserable apostate I must confess I've never
been able to finish an Iron and Wine album at one
sitting. The peaceful, easy vocals and unmodulated
melodic range can make it feel as if you were perusing
a finely written book of poems in which every line
ended with the word "blue" -- refreshing at first,
perhaps, but slowly the repetition would make the ink
swim and fade under your gaze, until you tumbled into
a soporific lake of blue blue blue blueblueblueblue
bluuuuluuuue . . . and off to sleep.

Arizona group Calexico, on the other hand, is centred
around the equivalent of Motown's Funk Brothers or
Jamaica's Sly and Robbie for indie music throughout
the 1990s -- a rhythm section with a distinctive
sound-print, in this case a spaghetti-western twang
from the desert or maybe the moon. Their greatest gift
is architectural: They seem able to make their
auditory geodesic dome wax and wane to the ideal
expanse for any given singer, song or ensemble,
allowing room to wander but never to flounder.

Joey Burns and John Convertino began in legendary
Tuscon, Ariz., group Giant Sand and moved on to back
such artists as Neko Case, Richard Buckner, Lisa
Germano, Vic Chesnutt, Bill Janovitz and even Nancy
Sinatra. And for the last decade as the core of
Calexico, they've grown from a shuffling, aw-shucks
outfit to an exuberant variety act that takes in
mariachi horns and Afro-Peruvian dance rhythms as much
as its basic surf-country-jazz.

But here too there's a flaw that causes the attention
to waver: Only once in a blue Mexican moon does
Calexico manage to haul out a truly substantial song,
one that seems like something more than a discarded
neo-noir film scenario. So while their music is seldom
actually dull, it too can blur into a mass, and often
with an overly glib surface.

So the meeting of the two projects could offer two
scoops of boring in watery milk, or it could be the
perfect remedy for what each side of the collaboration
lacks.

Happily the latter is nearer the case. On In the
Reins, Calexico is perhaps a little overcautious but
generally livens up the joint with slithering steel
guitars and the occasional ranch-torching blaze of
brass, keeping me alert while Beam mounts his
storyteller's perch.

And he offers Calexico several songs worth staying up
for, such as the inside-out Johnny Cash yarn of Prison
on Route 41, sung from the point of view of a man
who's abandoned his miscreant family in prison due to
the love of a righteous Christian woman, though he
provocatively admits, "My saviour is not Christ the
lord/ But one named Virginia/ Whom I live my life
for."

I'd generally advise avoiding the word "whom" in a
song lyric, but Beam earns his biblical tone via the
devilish details, which make the narrator seem more
selfish than saintly, as his parents, grandparents,
cousins and son rot in jail.

If only the two projects had joined forces sooner --
and it turns out Beam intended to. He considered
asking Calexico to accompany him on his very first
album, but it didn't pan out, so his label went with
his set of home recordings.

On the tour arriving in Toronto tonight, they edge
nearer to live-mashup status, with each act doing a
set before Calexico merges with not only Beam, but
also his backing road band, for a supersized take on
In the Reins. As long as they outfit the tune
whisperer with a loud enough microphone, it should be
a rich live show. Perhaps next time they can invite
Jay-Z, too.

Iron and Wine and Calexico, tonight at 8 p.m. The
Docks, 11 Polson St, $25, 416-461-3625.

from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/arts/music/09iron.html

Rock Review | Calexico; Iron & Wine
Surf Guitar and Mariachi Brass Meet Whispered Folky
Vocals

By JON PARELES
Published: December 9, 2005

On the surface, Calexico and Iron & Wine might seem
unlikely to mesh. Calexico, from Arizona, plays rangy
rock with surf-guitar reverb, steel guitar, vibraphone
and mariachi trumpets. Iron & Wine is simply the
Florida songwriter Sam Beam, whose songs usually
revolve around gentle guitar and whispered imagery.
Yet both Calexico and Iron & Wine invoke place, myth
and memory in their songs: Calexico looking toward the
Southwest, Mr. Beam toward the South. And both build
far-reaching songs on modest patterns.

They have been touring together this year, adding
various guests each night on the model of Bob Dylan's
mid-1970's Rolling Thunder Revue. And at Webster Hall
on Tuesday night, they were good for each other. For
its own set, Calexico chose its most thoughtful,
panoramic songs. Joining Mr. Beam a few at a time,
Calexico's musicians opened up new, shimmering spaces
in Iron & Wine songs or gave them an earthy
foundation. Then they all shared the songs from their
recent collaborative EP, "In the Reins" (Overcoat),
which merge their fascinations: family and catastrophe
for Mr. Beam, the frontier for Calexico.

Mr. Beam's folky melodies and modest voice - he can
sound almost exactly like the Donovan of the 1960's -
conceal an unsparing eye. His songs meditate on death
and loss without self-pity or sentimentality, often
suspending his voice in lattices of delicate picking.
But the members of Calexico transformed arrangements
that were quiet on Iron & Wine's albums. "On Your
Wings," which prays, "God, every road takes us further
from home," had an eerie electric drone glowing within
it, while Calexico's instruments made "Woman King"
even more of a hovering incantation. The songs added
heft without losing their mystery.

Calexico's songwriting hasn't been as consistently
profound as Mr. Beam's. The band sometimes settles
into being simply a border-hopping party outfit. But
it chose its brief set well: older songs like "Crystal
Frontier" (about exploitation and sorrow at the
Mexican border) and new ones like "All Systems Red"
expanded from a few notes plucked on Joey Burns's
guitar to full-band crescendos that balanced the
laughter of horns with the wide-open spaces of
sustained accordions and steel guitar. Later, when the
full band joined Mr. Beam, their version of the Velvet
Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" sent desert
winds swirling within the Velvet's stately drone. Iron
& Wine and Calexico don't need each other, but their
collaboration opens up new possibilities.

Their guest was Salvador Duran, a Mexican musician who
is probably unique. He sings in a dynamic baritone,
strums vigorous and complex flamenco-style guitar and,
at the same time, stamps fierce cross-rhythms with his
boot heels; when not singing, he also plays harmonica,
whistles or clucks percussive sounds. Singing ardent
love songs in Spanish, he added volatile passion, not
to mention novelty, to a pensive lineup.

from:
http://www.canada.com/cityguides/montreal/story.html?id=613d2145-5450-48a8-a4bd-\
725499768abc&k=88375

  > City Guides > Montreal

At the corner of roots and rhythm

Calexico & Iron and wine got together on a
collaboration that blends the best of both and finds a
new sound


Sam Beam (centre) of Iron and Wine and Calexico’s
Joey Burns (third from right) led the way to the
collaboration that produced the CD In the Reins and
the tour that brings both bands to the Spectrum
tonight.

Photograph by : COURTESY OF PITCH PERFECT PR

T'CHA DUNLEVY, The Gazette
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005

"Inspiration is a funny bird," said Sam Beam, the
singer-songwriter behind wistful, acoustic indie-rock
project Iron and Wine.

Beam recently teamed up with Texan roots band Calexico
for the EP In the Reins. Therein, the two musical
entities became more than the sum of their parts. Beam
wrote and sang the songs, Calexico provided the
backdrops, and along the way each discovered
something.

"The whole point of the project," said Calexico leader
Joey Burns, "was to take songs that had never been
recorded properly in the studio and make them our own,
to go somewhere different that we normally don't go."

They met in the middle. Beam's picturesque,
soft-spoken tales got beefed up with Tex-Mex twang,
and Calexico took its evocative grooves down a notch.

"There's a sensibility and openness in the music,"
Burns said, "that is represented differently in each
band. Sam builds on repetitive rhythms and texts. We
take more of a jazz approach to space and ambience."

"I had a good time," Beam said, in a no-frills
Southern drawl. "Calexico is so talented. They can
play anything."

Beam is a man of surprisingly few words, considering
the imaginative yarns he spins in his music. Following
a childhood in South Carolina and years in Florida, he
recently moved to Texas with his wife and three kids
(a move he says is purely coincidental to the current
collaboration).

Beam's affection for imagery surely can be traced to
his former occupations - as a film grip and
film-school teacher. He got his break when a friend
passed a tape of his music to the folks at American
indie label Sub Pop.

Centred around the duo of Burns and pal John
Convertino, Calexico has earned a following with its
playful mix of Americana, alt-country and Afro-Latin.
The band has backed Neko Case and Nancy Sinatra, and
toured with Wilco and Lyle Lovett.

Calexico is slotted to perform at next summer's
Montreal International Jazz Festival, revealed Burns,
who was born here. The band's new album, Garden Ruin,
is due in the new year.

The meeting of Calexico and Iron and Wine had been in
the works for a while - an idea from mutual friend
Howard Reynolds, of Chicago's Overcoat Recordings. The
two sides finally came together last year for a
four-day recording session at Calexico's Waveland
Studios, in Tucson.

"We didn't map anything out," Burns said. "I met (with
Beam) the night before. We talked about the music and
played a couple of songs, with him on acoustic and
Paul Niehaus on pedal steel.

"The demos were very minimal, just guitar and voice.
It wasn't full playing, it was very hushed. I thought
the project would take on a quieter tone. But once
(Beam) knew the whole band was in town, he said,
'Let's get everyone.' We put in trumpet, more guitars,
backup vocals."

In the Reins begins with what both consider the
highlight - the sort-of title track, He Lays in the
Reins. Niehaus's pedal steel colours a gently swaying
waltz, as Beam whispers a tender ode to a road-weary
cowboy.

"It's a beautiful amalgamation of both bands," Burns
said. "It's us all in the moment, in Tucson."

It was the first song Beam knew he would bring to the
sessions: "I thought it would be fun to do that song
in (Calexico's) 6/8 southwest kind of way," he said.
"The title insinuates a lack of control."

They pulled out all the stops for the upbeat A History
of Lovers - another of Burns's favourites - which
swings with a flashy horn arrangement.

"That's something we would never do," Burns said.
"We're playing with muscle; it's more Rolling Stones
than mariachi."

But on the whole, Calexico tempered its already
subdued sound to make room for Beam. The difference is
most noticeable in the live shows, Burns said.
Calexico and Iron and Wine each play their own sets,
then team up to perform In the Reins in its entirety.

"It's great," he continued. "I think both our crowds
are serious music listeners. They're very attentive.
The show strips down to acoustic guitar and voice at
one point. ... It goes down so low, you really feel
the room."

Calexico and Iron and Wine perform tonight at 8 at the
Spectrum with opening act Timber. Tickets cost $26.50,
available at Ticketpro. Call (514) 908-9090.

from:
http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/12/0709.cfm


Iron & Wine Rein In Calexico
Wednesday December 07, 2005 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine

By all accounts, it's been a pretty great couple of
years for Iron & Wine's Sam Beam. The alt.folk act's
critically acclaimed sophomore release, Our Endless
Numbered Days, was just the tip of the iceberg. Iron &
Wine's cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great
Heights" vaulted them into the upper echelons of the
indie world.

Now Beam, who recently moved to rural Texas, is
turning his attention to the follow-up to Our Endless
Numbered Days. "It's pretty much written, it's just a
matter of finding time to record it," he says in a
quiet southern drawl.

"I'll probably start at the beginning of the new year.
I just moved, so I'm trying to set up this home
studio. As soon as I get that up and running, I'll
start recording."

In the meantime, Iron & Wine have released two
successful EPs this year, Woman King and the Calexico
collaborative effort, In The Reins. Both discs have
enjoyed success on the campus charts this year.

The project came together when Overcoat Records owner
Howard Grizzel — who nearly signed Beam before the
bearded frontman went to Sub Pop to release lo-fi LP
The Creek Drank The Cradle — suggested that the two
acts get together and do an EP for his label.

"The original plan was to get together and write, but
then it just became a matter of time — I mean, it's
hard enough to clear the schedule just to record,"
Beam explains.

"They tour incessantly. It ended up that I brought in
some older songs that I hadn't used on records and we
just reinterpreted them, so that part went pretty
smoothly. We really just collaborated more on the
arrangements."

In a more unusual move, all of the members of both
bands appear in the credits. While the image of both
groups recording all at once is an interesting one,
it's not exactly how the process went down. "There was
some layering, but like I said, we didn't have a lot
of time so we ended up using most of what we played,"
Beam recalls.

"Mostly it was me, Joey [Burns], John [Convertino] and
Paul [Niehaus], their pedal steel player. The other
fellas would come in periodically. Sometimes we'd call
and see if they wanted to come in.

"Luckily, right after we finished, they were going to
go on some tour dates, so all their band members were
there."

The seven-track EP helped keep Iron & Wine in a
perpetual upswing. Beam quit his day job as a
professor about two years ago and there's no looking
back. When he last spoke to Chart, he was a little
unsure about what he was getting into. After Iron &
Wine's unstoppable success, however, he's obviously
relieved. "Garden State, in general, ramped things up
quite a bit," Beam says.

"Our shows doubled in size, which was nice. I went
from a 9-5 thing to being home most of the time. It's
been great.

"I was always skeptical before releasing a record
because there's a lot of music out there — there's a
lot of music out there. I think I just got lucky. I
think I've been blessed in a way that something
happened. Ask me in a couple years and I might have
something different to say."

Iron & Wine and Calexico are currently touring with
each other. It's a unique show, where both bands do
their own sets and then, following a break, come on
stage together to perform songs from In The Reins.

Here are their Canadian dates:
# December 8 Montreal, QC @ Spectrum
# December 9 Toronto, ON @ The Docks

—Noah Love

E-mail this story

from:
http://music.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2005-12-07/music/music.html

South by Southwest
Iron and Wine and Calexico meet each other halfway —
and the results are gorgeous
By Guy Gray

Published: Wednesday, December 7, 2005


Any musician can tell you that a successful
collaboration requires a genuine respect for the other
partners' talents and a willingness to be flexible —
be it by varying one's usual approach to creating
music, or by setting aside one's ego and merely
providing support. To birth a successful creation,
collaborators must stretch out to make a connection
and find a common ground so that the creative sparks
can fly.

Iron and Wine — the nom de plume of bearded
songwriter Sam Beam — and the Tuscon, Arizona, group
Calexico made such a connection on their recent joint
venture, a mini-LP titled In the Reins. Easily one of
the best collaborations of the year, the record is a
near-perfect synthesis of the groups' disparate sounds
— Iron and Wine's stark Southern melodies and
Calexico's ornate, desert-shape descants.

Yet within these differences, the bands apparently
found that there is an underlying sadness in each of
their music — a sadness they can both mold into
variety of interesting forms, be it a prison blues
ballad, a waltz or a pop number.

Consider the song "A History of Lovers": The original
is a lonely, Beam-penned dirge nearing five minutes in
length. Its pace seems to hamper its melody, a
misplaced slide-guitar solo awkwardly cuts the song in
two, and Beam labors to deliver words about the murder
of a suitor and a lover on the run.

The shorter, collaborated version, however, features a
faster tempo that livens up the song and pushes it
into the pop realm. (You can actually dance to this
version, not mope.) The sadness remains, lyrically,
but Beam has tightened up his singing, thus giving the
song's narrator the hopefulness of resolution; it
sounds like he can live with the misfortunes of his
past. Additionally, Calexico has added some sharp
extra touches: Backing vocals help take away the
singer's loneliness, a bustling piano gives a
saloon-like feel, and a bright horn section cheers the
song up. While the rest of the songs on Reins sound
dramatically different, almost all are of equally high
caliber.

But what drew the two groups together in the first
place? Surprisingly, Beam originally wanted Calexico
to be his backing band on Iron and Wine's
bedroom-recorded 2002 debut, the intimate The Creek
Drank the Cradle. (The album was actually released in
the form of four-track demos.)

"They're amazing musicians, [they're] a lot of fun to
play with...and their Western wear!" Beam says about
why he considered working with the group. But more
seriously, he adds: "Howard Greynolds [who ultimately
ended up putting out Reins on his label, Overcoat
Recordings] suggested them to me. I was aware of their
stuff; it's really good. They do a lot of session
work, too. It was one of the ideas I threw around."

At the time Beam was working on Cradle, Calexico was
working on their biggest record, Feast of Wire, for
Touch and Go Records subsidiary Quarterstick. Although
they couldn't find the time to record together, Beam
and Calexico singer/guitarist Joey Burns did keep the
idea alive. It was clearly something that they both
wanted to do.

"What appealed to us," Burns writes in an e-mail, "was
someone that was focused more on voice, harmonies,
textures and instrumentation that dealt with different
backgrounds. That's what I love about his music, and
have been really enjoying the times spent together
playing both live and in studio."

Yet the bands didn't just set up camp in the studio
and start writing.

"Sam had a batch of songs left from earlier times that
were out there on the Web as demos," Burns explains.
"It seemed a perfect idea to record these with both
bands and open the possibilities of where they could
go."

Iron and Wine and Calexico are obviously satisfied
with how Reins turned out, seeing as how they've set
up a very unique tour based around the album.

"It's in the spirit of the record — a collaborative,
fun thing to do," Beam says. "Plus, routine gets old;
we wanted to throw a wrench into it. Basically, they
do a set and then I do a set, and then we do a set
together, play covers and random stuff. We will also
have regional guests and other surprises."

Such as?

"I don't know, and I probably wouldn't tell you if I
did," he chuckles.

Beam's amiable laugh contrasts with the often-blue
demeanor of his songs, whose gorgeous, finger-picked
guitars and downcast melodies drew instant comparisons
to Nick Drake, England's minstrel of melancholy. But
unlike Drake, Beam's lyrical imagery and use of banjo
and slide guitar give his music a decidedly Southern
feel. On records such as 2004's Our Endless Numbered
Days, he embraced studio recording with all its tricks
and toys, and opened his sound up a little more
without sacrificing immediacy or his Southern roots.
In the process he gained plenty of new fans without
losing his old ones. (His cover of the Postal
Service's "Such Great Heights" on the Garden State
soundtrack particularly helped him to reach a wider
audience.)

Calexico has also been tagged regionally; their music
has a Southwestern sound. But when Burns mentions
Calexico's influences — which range from writer
Carlos Fuentes to gypsy music to spaghetti-Western
score-composer Ennio Morricone — he speaks of a
"blue vein" and "connections through melancholy, [or]
saudade" that he and his bandmates frequently find in
different artists from all over the world.

In fact, it only takes a casual listen to any of
Calexico's records to reveal that the band is
committed to experimentation and open to outside
influences. It's not uncommon for Calexico to employ
dub, mariachi, indie rock and even down-home country
in their songs. Yet they always manage to inject a
desert vibe into those different sources — which,
coupled with Iron and Wine's Southernness, also helps
make Reins so interesting.

"I don't really think of the music as being from one
region or another," Burns says. "There are so many
influences in both of our music that extend well
beyond the geographic, but this question does come up
time and time again. I suppose that [Beam's] music and
writing are keyed to an openness in the same way that
ours is; and in that openness, dynamics,
instrumentation and subtleties all make new
connections.

"Once musicians start playing in a room, there are
usually more similarities discovered from such
different backgrounds than not."

from:
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8584

South by Southwest

Florida’s Iron & Wine (finally) meets Arizona’s
Calexico

by Eric Waggoner
12/7/2005

The American highway is dotted with toll booths and
coffee shops, small stops and oases alongside the vast
scrolls of patchy asphalt that unite us all, even if
the lines of connection aren’t readily apparent. And
it’s here, between refueling and stopping to
stretch, that we find Calexico drummer John
Convertino, making his way from Washington, D.C., to
Asbury Park, N.J., after which he’ll continue north,
then back through the Midwest, on Calexico’s 15-city
tour with Sam Beam’s whispery, weird-Americana
project Iron and Wine.

On paper it seems like the most bizarre pairing
imaginable, the spooky, understated Iron and Wine with
Calexico, the Tucson, Ariz.,
Morricone-by-way-of-mariachi powerhouse combo. But
spin In the Reins, the bands’ collaborative release
on Chicago’s Overcoat label, and the picture snaps
into place like an Escher drawing — disorienting at
first, but possessed of its own skewed and lovely
logic.

Actually, this pairing of one of the year’s most
popular indie rock acts — that’d be the
unprepossessing Beam — and a critics’-favorite
band with nowhere near the popular esteem it deserves,
was a long time coming. Beam, who infamously released
an album’s worth of home-recorded demos as his debut
disc on Sub Pop, had initially wanted Calexico to work
as the backing group for that project.

“Which was something I’d never heard about, until
we started doing press [for In the Reins],”
Convertino says, laughing. “But it wasn’t as weird
as it might sound. We’ve done a lot of that kind of
work over the years — sound track stuff,
collaborative sessions with various singers — and we
work really hard at finding an appropriate sound for
the voices we play under. For a long time, especially
when it was just me and Joey, we were an instrumental
group anyway. So it’s not a terrific stretch.”

True: Back in 1996, when Calexico was only Convertino
and guitarist Joey Burns, the duo’s moody blend of
multi-instrumental soundscapes caught the attention of
fellow outsiders Vic Chesnutt, Barbara Manning,
Victoria Williams and Lisa Germano, among others, all
of whom tapped Calexico for session work. Intuitive as
well as educated players (Burns studied in UC
Irvine’s classical music program before moving to
Tucson), Convertino and Burns developed a musical
style deeply rooted in the border culture of the
American Southwest, drawing from film scores and
Mexican folk, indie rock and bombastic Latin jazz.

“And Sam takes that same sort of approach, that
visual approach to the music,” Convertino says.
“Iron and Wine’s music always sounded very
cinematic to me, so when we were able to get together,
everything clicked really quickly.”

Overcoat founder Howard Reynolds, Convertino reports,
provided the catalyst for the project. After
shepherding a collaborative project with Will Oldham
and Tortoise, Reynolds approached Calexico and Beam
about scheduling studio time.

“And the thing that was weird, was that we both had
just enough time to do it. Calexico had just come off
the tour for [2003’s] Feast of Wire, and Sam had the
songs already written; he sent us a demo recording,
and we worked off of that. So when we finally went
into [Tucson’s] Wavelab Studios to record, it
didn’t take long at all. Joey and Sam and I put the
basic tracks down, and the whole thing was done, with
overdubs and everything, in four days.”

The finished In the Reins is a warm and spontaneous
disc, a collaborative project in the truest sense,
even though the songs are all Beam’s. The minor-key
opening, “He Lays In the Reins,” treads familiar
Iron and Wine territory in its blending of bucolic
unease and weary sympathy (“One more kiss
tonight/From some tall stable girl/She’s like grace
from the earth/When you’re all tuckered out and
tame”). But a third-verse Spanish guest vocal from
Tuscon Flamenco performer Salvador Duran adds a layer
of complexity absent from any previous Beam release,
as does the persistent pedal steel and banjo interplay
on the haunting “Prison on Route 41.”

The album’s most purely collaborative track, the
giddy “A History of Lovers,” is a soulful
roll-call of busted hearts and bad moves, driven by a
low-end acoustic riff and Convertino’s snapping
snare. “Cuddle some men, they’ll remember you
bitterly/Fuck ’em, they’ll come back for more,”
Beam sings, sounding less resigned than happily
smartassed. It’s a charming moment, one that’s
hard to imagine in the context of a separate release
from either band, but plays to the strengths of each
— Calexico’s watertight musicianship and Beam’s
ear for the language of unsentimental romance.

In support of In the Reins, Calexico and Beam have
embarked on a series of regional tours with a rotating
roster of supporting acts and special guests,
including singer-songwriter Edith Frost and Beam’s
sister (and sometime collaborator) Sarah. Iron and
Wine’s current popularity among the college-radio
and indie-rock set seems to provide the crowd’s
base, suspects Convertino, whose shows with Calexico
are famously rowdy affairs.

“The audiences have been amazing — what astonishes
me is how quiet they are, how respectful. And I think
that’s partially because Sam’s fans are used to
listening closely to the music. All the shows we’ve
done so far have been really, really incredible
evenings.”

It’s been a busy year for both acts — Iron and
Wine released the Woman King EP in February, and
Calexico’s next studio album is slated for spring
2006 — but In the Reins stands on its merits as a
joint project, and the players remain as high on the
music as the fans seem to be.

“Most of the shows are sold out,” Convertino says.
“The tour is probably introducing us to Iron and
Wine fans, rather than the other way around. But
we’ve got a tour scheduled for Europe soon, and
we’ve always had a wider fan base in Europe. I’m
not sure whether Sam’s toured overseas yet.” He
laughs again. “Maybe we can flip the tables on
him.”


Calexico with Iron and Wine appear Saturday, Dec. 12,
at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit;
313-833-9700.

Eric Waggoner is a freelance writer. Send comments to
letters@....

from:  http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/4908.html

Beam of Light
Iron & Wine return with friends

Tom Lynch

A friend of mine, after I told her I would be speaking
with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam over the telephone, joked
that I wouldn't be able to hear him speak. His soft,
whispered vocal delivery stands out on every Iron &
Wine song, or, one could say, stands back.

The Florida-based singer-songwriter first caught the
ears of dejected indie-folksters with "The Creek Drank
the Cradle," his debut record, an almost total
just-voice-and-guitar diary entry. As lo-fi as
imaginable, "The Creek" hisses and staggers, but with
indelible honesty succeeds as a fine examination of
minimal experimentation. Beam's follow-up, last year's
"Our Endless Numbered Days," got him even more
attention as he expanded his skills to bluesy
anti-rhythms (it was produced by Modest Mouse's
board-man Brian Deck), all the while keeping the voice
and keeping--at least half the record--pretty and
sleep-inducing. The highlight song, the gorgeous,
bittersweet, melancholy and nostalgic "Naked As We
Came," had some success in music-video format, and put
Beam in the spotlight as one of the genre's best
talents, his guitar work finally grabbing the acclaim
it's always deserved. "I never really had any
expectations as far as the whole music career goes,"
Beam says. "But, it's been real nice."

More success followed with a surprise hit in "Such
Great Heights," a cover of label mates The Postal
Service found both as a b-side on one of that band's
singles and on the "Garden State" soundtrack which,
for better or for worse, exploded last year as the
must-have for anyone who cared about must-haves.
Beam's version is also heard in an M&M's commercial,
the one where the colored candies seem to be falling
from the sky ("they will see us waving from such great
heights..." ahhh, you get it), a blatant attempt to
bring the despondency of indie rock into the world of
product endorsement, not unlike The Gap's adventures
with Red House Painters and Low just some years ago.

After the release of a successful EP ("Woman King," as
bluesy as ever), Beam is set to embark on a tour with
Calexico, as the bands release a dual mini-album, "In
the Reins." "I've always wanted to use Calexico as a
backing band," Beam says. "It didn't really work out,
but we always tried to work together. It really was
only a matter of time. I mean, we all had hopes of
working together, collaborating in that way. I just
used a bunch of songs that I had lying around."

The seven-song release, all Beam-written
originals--most from the "The Creek Drank the
Cradle"-era, he says--sounds, as it should, much more
like an Iron & Wine record than one by Calexico, but
still unique in that Beam is indeed backed by a full
band. The new abundance of sounds adds countless
qualities to Beam's songwriting as banjos, pianos and
drums work themselves into the mix. Some songs sound
directly from "The Creek"--love songs like "A History
of Lovers" or the album-best "Sixteen, Maybe
Less"--and some seem taken directly from Springsteen's
"Nebraska," like "Prison on Route 41" and the closer,
"Dead Man's Will." Like last year's tour in support of
"Our Endless Numbered Days," in which Beam was backed
by a live band, "In the Reins" is a re-texturing of
gentle mediations, a progression from the simplest of
ideas into full-blown orchestration.

Beam, as soft-spoken and shy as you would expect,
seems boyishly delighted with the results. "It was a
lot of fun really. That was sort of the whole reason
for doing it--to get together and have some fun."

The plan for the tour seems simple. "Basically, what
we're doing," Beam says, "is that we're inviting
friends to open up and play a short set. It's
different people from each city. Then Calexico plays a
short set. Then I play a short set. Then we both play
the entire record together. We'll switch around the
order, too."

He enjoys the variety of playing solo and switching it
up by playing with a full band. "I think it's fun," he
says. "When you play solo, it gives you a lot of
versatility to switch things around. A lot more
freedom. But you don't have the variety that playing
with a big band affords you."

And the future for Iron & Wine? "I'm gonna start
recording at the beginning of next year. The record's
pretty much written. It's kind of like the other
records--I kind of keep writing all the time."

Iron & Wine and Calexico play December 11 at the
Congress Theatre.

(2005-12-06)

from:
http://www.temple-news.com/media/paper143/news/2016/06/05/OutAndAbout/Sobering.S\
ounds.From.Iron.And.Wine.At.The.Electric.Factory-1122616.shtml?norewrite&sourced\
omain=www.temple-news.com

Home > Out and About

Sobering sounds from Iron and Wine at the Electric
Factory

The band changed the typical Electric Factory
atmosphere into a night of melody.

By: Alex Yalch

Issue date: 6/5/16 Section: Out and About

The best complement to a great wine is not a delicious
cheese; it's a wholesome serving of Iron. Jim Beam,
also known as Iron and Wine, was the perfect cure to a
cold and shivering Philadelphia Saturday night,
warming up the Electric Factory with his deep melodic
voice and soothing serene guitar. Filled with couples,
families and friends, the audience was a diverse group
of personalities and styles that packed the building
with a positive energy.

Before the opening acts took stage the venue was
filled with smoke and laughter, giving the Electric
Factory a home-away-from-home feeling that was
accompanied by the same type of music. Each opening
act was welcomed with open arms and heartfelt
applause, even if unknown to the majority of the
crowd.

Death Vessel, the first act, set the tone of the
concert with her acoustic guitar and female folk
singing, while Salvador Duran energized the crowd with
his unique and unexpected Mexican-style music.
Calexico, the co-headliner of the show, played their
songs next, which was an eclectic mix of indie rock,
folk and Latin music.

Beam took stage solo to start off the night, playing
an array of songs on his guitars. Beam's energy was
the same as the crowd's. As one woman yelled "I like
your beard," Beam replied with "I like yours too."

As the show progressed other musicians joined him, and
at times as many as 13 people were on stage, playing
instruments ranging from horns and fiddles to guitars.
As Beam and company played through the night, songs
like "Cinder and Smoke" and "free until they cut me
down," both from his "our endless numbered days"
album, seemed to draw the most applause and crowd
reaction.

At times the audience appeared in a Zen-like state,
captivated by Beam's voice and the ideal combination
of instruments and musicians on stage.

There were no screaming 13-year-old girls, no violent
'let-me-to-the-front' people pushing their way through
the crowd. The encore didn't take 20 minutes to get to
- it didn't even take five. The crowd was there to
enjoy soul-warming music on a cold Philadelphia night,
and that's exactly what everyone did.

from: http://cfru.ca/boards/viewtopic.php?t=625

This week the Mich Vish Interracial Morning Show is pleased to welcome
Sam Beam from Iron and Wine to our program.

Together with recent collaborators Calexico, Iron and Wine will be
playing the Docks in Toronto on Friday December 9, 2005 in support of
their recent album In the Reins. It should an amazing show! The
concert I mean. Although, this radio show should be darn good too...

Remember, if you can't tune in live at 8:05 am on 93.3 FM or
www.cfru.ca to hear this interview with Sam, you can listen to it for
up to 30 days here or else at:
http://131.104.85.98/~archive/2005-12-07/08.mp3

from:
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/12/05/1339951.html


Iron And Wine, Calexico mix well
By MARY DICKIE -- Toronto Sun


The bandmates of Iron And Wine and Calexico produced a
new album called In The Reins.

Iron And Wine and Calexico are two bands from the
American south -- Florida and Arizona, respectively --
who play gentle, laid-back, atmospheric alt-country
music. Earlier this year they got together to record
the EP In The Reins, a rather lovely collaboration
that brings out the best in both bands: Calexico's
extensive instrumental arsenal adds interesting jazzy
layers to Iron And Wine's minimalist songs, and
beautiful harmonies from Calexico vocalist Joey Burns
make Iron And Wine singer Sam Beam's whispery voice
come across better.

"Recording was a lot of fun," said Calexico's John
Convertino in a recent interview. "Sam came to Tucson
and sat in a little isolation booth with windows so we
could all see him, strummed his guitar and sang the
songs. And we just played to him. It was really easy
-- there was a natural kind of flow, and it all
immediately fell into place. The whole thing only took
about four days."

In fact, In The Reins, which was released in
September, turned out so well that the two bands
decided to take the show on the road, with each doing
a set of its own music and then climbing on stage en
masse to perform In The Reins together.

"The amalgamation part has been changing a lot over
the tour," Convertino said. "Originally we were just
supposed to play the record, but we've started doing
some cover songs and mixing things up a bit. It's kind
of a work in progress. At one point in the show there
are 11 people on stage."

And that's not including guest singer Salvador Duran,
who adds operatic Spanish vocals to the EP's lead
track, He Lays In The Reins.

"He's a real treat," said Convertino. "He's going to
do four or five of his own songs that'll blow
everybody away."


Sadly, Convertino said there won't be "room" for any
of the sparse piano-and-percussion material from his
own solo album, Ragland.

"I never really intended any of that to be played
live," he said. "It's a solo experience -- played
alone, recorded alone, listened to alone."

Calexico, on the other hand, are experts at
collaboration, having played with Howe Gelb in Giant
Sand as well as Neko Case and even Nancy Sinatra.
Their own new album, tentatively titled Garden Ruin,
is expected next spring.

"It's really different from the other records we've
done," said Convertino. "That was our goal, to do
things differently. We worked with a producer, J.D.
Foster, which we've never done before. I think that's
made a different sounding record -- more streamlined,
less ambient, more song-oriented."

Check out the new Calexico songs, as well as In The
Reins, when Iron And Wine and Calexico play the Docks
Friday.

Iron And Wine with Calexico
Friday, 8 p.m.
Docks
Advance tix, $25, at Ticketmaster, Rotate This,
Soundscapes and the Horseshoe

yes.  I have mp3's of the entire show on my site:
http://www.passingafternoon.com

check out the forums.  you will find ftp info to my
collection there.


--- "Noreen, Douglas" <donoreen@...> wrote:

> Was the rest of this show recorded as well?
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Iron_and_Wine@yahoogroups.com on behalf of
> Erika Herzog
> Sent: Mon 12/5/2005 11:17 PM
> To: Iron_and_Wine@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Iron_and_Wine] mp3s
>
>
> got this from chromewaves....  can't get the links
> to work so i'll
> just post them here and hope the site's traffic
> calms down a bit.
>
> chromewaves has one mp3 on his site:
>
http://www.chromewaves.net/mp3/radio/CalexicoIronAndWine-
> AllTomorrowsParties.mp3
>
> Calexico/Iron & Wine - "All Tomorrow's Parties"
> The Calexico/Iron & Wine travelling sideshow pulls
> into town this
> week for a show at The Docks on Friday. In addition
> to the material
> from their collaborative EP In The Reins, they are
> also trotting out
> some great covers, including this unexpected but
> excellent Velvet
> Underground tune. This version was recorded on
> October 22 at the
> Triple Door in Seattle. Also check out So Much
> Silence's recent
> posts - he's ripped a show in DC that was streamed
> on NPR last week.
>
> erika
>
> from:
> http://www.chromewaves.net/index.php?itemid=2040
>
> As I mentioned in this week's MP3 Of The Week blurb,
> So Much Silence
> has been working overtime converting radio sessions
> to friendlier MP3
> format. His latest feat was converting the NPR
> stream of last week's
> Calexico and Iron & Wine show in DC. Check out his
> posts for
> Calexico's set, Iron & Wine's set and both acts
> together.
>
> http://somuchsilence.blogspot.com/
>
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5029368
>
http://somuchsilence.blogspot.com/2005/12/calexicos-set-on-npr.html
>
http://somuchsilence.blogspot.com/2005/12/iron-and-wine-on-npr.html
>
http://somuchsilence.blogspot.com/2005/12/iron-and-winecalexico-on-
> npr.html
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> SPONSORED LINKS
> Independent music artist
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Independent+music+artist&w1=Independent+mus\
ic+artist&w2=Beam&w3=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Mus\
ic+artists&c=6&s=121&.sig=98P4khDOm9jXFvHAHJIMgA>
>   Beam
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Beam&w1=Independent+music+artist&w2=Beam&w3\
=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Music+artists&c=6&s=121\
&.sig=0kmR0xJwtmbE7Y_sua-Wtg>
>   Iron
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Iron&w1=Independent+music+artist&w2=Beam&w3\
=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Music+artists&c=6&s=121\
&.sig=OoIw5D1lxuJpDPP9oD9yxw>
>
> Christian music artists
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Christian+music+artists&w1=Independent+musi\
c+artist&w2=Beam&w3=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Musi\
c+artists&c=6&s=121&.sig=dESRq1pP3CdhOfnVFHykaA>
>   New music artists
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=New+music+artists&w1=Independent+music+arti\
st&w2=Beam&w3=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Music+arti\
sts&c=6&s=121&.sig=Sx2QXCEhbbq8t5jKNvpN9Q>
>   Music artists
>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Music+artists&w1=Independent+music+artist&w\
2=Beam&w3=Iron&w4=Christian+music+artists&w5=New+music+artists&w6=Music+artists&\
c=6&s=121&.sig=19AtO0Za73SzgLhYAV1xww>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>
> *  Visit your group "Iron_and_Wine
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iron_and_Wine> " on
> the web.
>
> *  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> 	 Iron_and_Wine-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
<mailto:Iron_and_Wine-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
>
>
> *  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
> Yahoo! Terms of Service
> <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>




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__________________________________________
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Just $16.99/mo. or less.
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