forget burt reynolds, sam beam is florida state university's favorite alum.  who is sam beam you ask?  only one of the greatest indie-folk-rock musicians to ever strum a banjo/slide guitar.  after earning an mfa from the fsu film school, the future iron and wine maestro landed a gig teaching film and cinematography at the University of Miami, relegating his music to "hobby status".

i don't know what led sam to pursue music more seriously; but whatever, i'm glad he did.  in 2002, he was noticed and immediately signed by legendary sub pop records (home to nirvana, sleater-kinney, the shins, the postal service, etc).

but i digress. sam, who goes by the nom de plume iron and wine released his third full length august 25, 2007.  the result, the shepherd's dog is a finely crafted, melodic, lyrically thoughtful master work.

if you like the great folk music icon's of the 1960's-70's, then you will love iron and wine.  he has a bunch of upcoming tour dates, australia in march, the us east coast in april and the uk in may.  click here for more info.

also, iron and wine was kind enough to share with us a live gig.  just click play below.  don't forget, the album cover image on the upper right of the screen links to additional sample songs, sam's image on the lower right links to the website.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless global homogenizers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).

iron and wine rocks.

if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site).

jason

don't worry if you missed the jukebox review from last week: here it is.

sub pop records


sub pop records