Iron and Wine: Songs of Love and Death : World Cafe Iron and Wine's diverse, progressive new album (The Shepherd's Dog) has already earned strong sales and excellent reviews. In this performance and interview segment, singer Sam Beam plays songs and talks about the disc's status as a "headphone record."

Iron and Wine: Songs of Love and Death

Hear an Interview and In-Studio Performance

Iron and Wine: Songs of Love and Death

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Set List

  • "Boy with a Coin"
  • "Resurrection Fern"
  • "Peace Beneath the City"
  • "Naked as We Came"

Iron and Wine. Kim Black hide caption

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Kim Black

Years ago, a South Carolina-born musician called Sam Beam wandered into a general store and found a dietary supplement called "Beef Iron and Wine." After dropping the "Beef," he'd found a moniker for a band whose music would go on to evolve from spare acoustic solo recordings to fully fleshed-out roots-rock.

Beam's first album, 2002's The Creek Drank the Cradle, found Beam writing, performing, recording and producing every track by himself at a studio in his home. Featuring acoustic guitars, banjo and slide guitar, its music has been compared to that of Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Young and Ralph Stanley. It's often characterized as alt-country, progressive folk or indie folk, with painfully intimate songs about love and death.

Our Endless Numbered Days continued Iron and Wine's acoustic approach, but the 2004 album was recorded in a professional studio with a significant increase in fidelity. The expansion of the band's sound continued with two EPs: Woman King and In the Reins, the latter of which was recorded with the atmospheric indie-rock duo Calexico.

Last month, Iron and Wine released a diverse and progressive album called The Shepherd's Dog, which has already earned strong sales and excellent reviews. In this segment, Beam talks about the disc's status as a "headphone record" and praises Tom Waits, while pointing to South Carolina as an inspiration for his lyrics.

This program originally aired Oct. 19, 2007.