Latest Release
- 26 APR 2024
- 10 Songs
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Version] · 2011
- The Shepherd's Dog · 2007
- Weed Garden - EP · 2018
- In the Reins · 2005
- The Sea & the Rhythm - EP · 2003
- Weed Garden - EP · 2018
- Weed Garden - EP · 2018
- Archive Series Volume No. 1 · 2015
- Forever Young (From NBC's Parenthood) - Single · 2015
- Light Verse · 2024
Essential Albums
- Little did Sam Beam—then a Miami-based university professor with film-making ambitions—know that Our Endless Numbered Days would take off the way that it did. Shortly after releasing his debut album in 2002, The Creek Drank the Cradle, Beam became a notable presence in an indie-folk movement—alongside artists like Damien Rice and The Mountain Goats—that favoured form-fitting simplicity. Having self-recorded Creek with minimal resources, Beam expanded his instrumental expression with his 2004 follow-up, backing his somber, fingerpicking performances with string arrangements and touches of Delta blues. Hollywood quickly took notice, and it didn’t take long for his spare, wistful lullabies to feature on prime-time TV shows like House M.D. and Grey’s Anatomy. His calming eloquence may sound easy on the ears set against dramatic scenes, but Beam’s Southern Gothic-inspired narratives were much more thoughtful than what was on the surface. “Cinder and Smoke” and “Each Coming Night”, while softened with gentle banjo-picking and acoustic guitar, use natural imagery to tell intimate accounts of personal ruin and renewal. At the same time, Beam could draw from memories of his Christian upbringing on the iridescent “Sodom, South Georgia”, adopting dark, Faulkner-like storytelling about the cyclical nature of life and death.
- 2024
- 2017
- 2024
- 2021
Artist Playlists
- Sam Beam reached great heights thanks to a soundtrack - and hasn't looked back since.
- Hushed, intimate acoustic pop for the 21st century.
- An indie-folk study on the profound power of subtlety.
- Delicate folk from some of songwriting's most sensitive souls.
Compilations
More To Hear
- Sam Beam discusses Iron & Wine's Light Verse.
About Iron & Wine
In the 2000s, Iron & Wine (a.k.a. singer-songwriter Sam Beam) helped bring about an indie-folk explosion whose effects would be felt for decades. Beam’s warm, hushed vocals and poetic lyrics were framed by his gentle acoustic-guitar picking for a lo-fi vibe undeniably indie but worlds away from alt-rock. Born in 1974 and raised in South Carolina, he worked as a film teacher and recorded home demos for years before signing to Sub Pop and releasing his 2002 debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle. He expanded his arrangements on subsequent albums and worked with members of Califone, Calexico, Band of Horses, Wilco and others. Whether he’s onboarding the influences of blues, country or West African music, his low-key delivery and imagistic lyrics remain his musical signature. Judging from the artists who have arrived in Beam’s wake—Zach Bryan, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver—the music world would have evolved very differently without him.
- GENRE
- Alternative