Iron and Wine -

Creek Drank the Cradle

Posted: September 2nd, 2008

Date: September 24, 2002 (release)
Release: Sub Pop #600
Cover Art: view / download
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Iron and Wine is the obscure name adopted by singer/songwriter Samuel Beam for his self-recorded, back-porch leaning, lo-fi, one-man band. As the story goes, someone with pull at Sub-Pop Records came across a free-CD sampler from a small music magazine featuring one of Beam’s songs. In un-characteristic music exec fashion, the guy fell instantly in love with Beam’s stripped down, lyrically compelling, Southern-folk flavored sound. Beam was soon tracked down in Florida (where he fittingly teaches cinematography at some unnamed university) and offered a record deal. After signing across the dotted line with one of the last great independent labels, Beam dutifully handed over two album’s worth of self-recorded songs.

Rather than bring him into the studio to slick up his production, Sub-Pop wisely decided not to mess with flawed perfection, understanding that when it comes to intimate atmosphere, there’s no place like home. Compiling the best songs from these home demos, The Creek Drank The Cradle features an unadulterated low-fidelity sound steeped in all the glories of four-track tape hiss, ambient room tones, and dust-spiked beams of natural light.

With impressive echoes of Nick Drake‘s Pink Moon, Beam’s gentle voice and spare instrumentation delicately amplify the power of his sad story-songs. Working alone apparently has its benefits, as Beam’s beautifully layered vocal harmonies, Delta-flavored slide guitar, and rudimentary banjo all cohere with a grace seldom found among bands of today.

While some songs are less great than others, the album is free of any weak spots. And there are a few truly amazing songs. Two personal favorites, “Bird Stealing Bread” and “Upwards Over The Mountains,” meaningfully overplayed their way through a recent emotional rough spot of mine. Thoroughly full of this album and hungry for more, I wonder if Sub Pop has any plans on releasing the rest of Iron & Wine’s first recordings. Either way, I hope that Sam Beam is holed up in his living room, busy crafting another bundle of quiet night songs for us to get wrapped up in, warmly against the cold.