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Iron & Wine, "The Shepherd's Dog"

Indie-folk icon expands his sound on one of the year’s most revelatory albums

By Jeff Weiss, Special to Metromix

September 25, 2007

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Backstory: Former film professor Sam Beam’s acclaimed 2002 debut, “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” was very much a homemade affair, with Beam writing, performing, producing and recording the record solo at his home studio in Miami. When his cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” found its way onto the “Garden State” soundtrack, it further solidified Beam’s rep among melancholy college kids trying their best to be seductive on dorm room futons.

Why you should care: If you’ve always found Iron & Wine a little boring, in a polite, acoustic coffeehouse sort of way, this is the record that will change your mind. “The Shepherd’s Dog” marks a startling sonic evolution, with gorgeous and increasingly lush instrumentation from a full band.

Verdict: “The Shepherd’s Dog” is more upbeat, more experimental and more consistently rewarding than Beam’s previous records. At times, Beam's growth is astonishing, with two-minute tracks like “The Devil Never Sleeps” showcasing rollicking pianos and a locomotive rhythm section, punctuated by bursts of electric guitar that sound like Dylan’s “Basement Tapes” crossed with Califone's “Roots and Crowns.” It's a long way from “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” but Beam has distilled the best elements of his Southern Gothic lyrics and let the arrangements breathe out from the twisting kudzu that had previously restrained them. It's one of 2007's best records, and finally catapults Sam Beam into the first tier of American singer-songwriters

X-Factor: With Zach Braff still filming “Scrubs” and no upcoming movies listed on his IMDB page, the excellence of “The Shepherd’s Dog” might be the impetus to get him working on another film and subsequent indie-leaning soundtrack—for better or worse.