Sam Beam is out of a job. But what he’s lost in salary,
the former film professor at the Miami International University of
Art & Design, is making up for with record sales.
“I just quit last week actually, to go on tour,”
said Beam, the singer-songwriter better known as Iron & Wine,
who will be performing at the Knitting Factory on April 10 and
11.
After two EPs, an album of home recordings and a newly released
studio debut, the emotional depth of Beam’s music has reached
the attention of many. Even Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard
wanted to collaborate, offering up his Postal Service track
“Such Great Heights” for Beam’s
interpretation.
“We went to Seattle to play a CD-release show for the
first record we put out and Ben Gibbard came to the show and he
asked me to do this,” Beam said.
In his capable hands, Gibbard’s sugar-sweet ballad gained
a new weight, turning from the Postal Service’s shiny
techno-pop to a lovelorn ode to the triumph of romance over
distance. Beam’s gift for angelic harmonies and penchant for
folk guitar have garnered him comparisons to such highly regarded
singer-songwriters as Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. His Saturday
and Sunday night shows will include a fresh batch of newly released
songs.
The recent “Our Endless Numbered Days” is the
product of Iron & Wine’s first work in a recording
studio. While the warm scratchiness of four-track tape recordings
is a trademark of his early work, when given the opportunity, Beam
is ready to try something new.
“It’s very easy to be pigeonholed,” Beam said.
“It wasn’t what I always wanted to do; it originally
came about just because of necessity. (The four-track was) my means
of recording, and the only means.”
Beam did home recordings for six years before submitting his
demos to Sub Pop records for their eventual release as “The
Creek Drank The Cradle” and the subsequent “Sea And
Rhythm EP.” Several of these four-track sessions leaked onto
the Internet last year, giving fans a preview of demos for new
songs like “Sunset Soon Forgotten.”
“It all sort of originates that way,” Beam said
referring to his initial method of recording. “That’s
what I do at the house, in order to work through the songs and not
forget them.”
It’s this attention to craft that makes Beam’s work
so memorable, as well as his unique sound. “Our Endless
Numbered Days” is a 21st-century folk album, as true to
American roots music and bluegrass as it is to the music of the
1960s.
“I think folk music is really anything other than
classical music, really,” says Beam, who finds equal time for
Stevie Wonder and Mission of Burma on his stereo. With this
outlook, it’s no surprise that Beam continues to achieve
success, whether his songs are heard in the form of demos, studio
recordings or this weekend’s shows.
Now that Iron & Wine is his full-time job, the former film
professor has no intention of going back.
“As long as I can pay the rent with music, (I’ll be
doing this),” Beam said.