Iron & Wine, Adelphi Theatre

American singer-songwriter Iron & Wine, aka Samuel Beam, gets back to the basics of his music for a solo acoustic show at the Adelphi Theatre this November.

The South Carolina native has achieved considerable success since his first album appeared in 2002. The Shepherd’s Dog, his 2007 album, was named as one of the Top 50 records of the Year by Pitchfork.

Beginning as a hushed, guitar-caressing troubadour with his 2002 debut album The Creek Drank the Candle, his emotional songs were seized on by film soundtracks seeking to capture a certain flavour of young-adult wist. After Iron & Wine songs appeared on Twilight and Garden State his acoustic musings began to find a wider audience.  

Since his debut, Beam has released four more albums, with his sound more recently gravitating towards more lush textures, making use of a variety of instruments beyond the core of his guitar and vocals.

This development and maturity in his sound has set him apart from his moist-eyed contemporaries and culminated with the 2011 album Kiss Each Other Clean. If that record were your first experience of Beam’s music you could be forgiven for thinking Iron & Wine were a fully-fledged multi-piece band, complete with soulful backing singers and a flute section.  

Beam’s fifth studio album, Ghost on Ghost, was released in 2013. While his new, fuller sound remains- complete with soul and jazz influences- this album has a much more intimate feel compared to its predecessor.  

He has come a long way from the lo-fi, backwoods of The Creek Drank the Candle, but while the sound of the new record is much more in line with the bigger production numbers of Kiss Each Other Clean, the style and treatment of the songs once again dovetail with Beam’s quiet, ruminative and folky singing.

Appearing at the Adelphi with accompanied only by his guitar, instead of his usual full-band, fans of Beam’s stark early vision will be excited as he returns to his intimate roots.