The Shepherd's Dog:
Iron and Wine’s last release (not including the collaborative In the Reins EP which featured songs by Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam and performances by both Iron and Wine and Calexico together) was 2005’s Woman King, a 6-song EP which distinguished itself from its predecessors with a deepening integration of spiraling, dense opuses with intimate confessionals. On The Shepherd’s Dog this integration is complete. Sam Beam has confessed to finding spiritual inspiration in Tom Waits’ pièce de résistance, Swordfishtrombones, an album with which Waits upended his previous strategies and forged a new musical language for himself. Recorded by Sam with the assistance of longtime producer Brian Deck and engineer Colin Studebaker, The Shepherd’s Dog succeeds in accomplishing a similar cathartic recasting of the artist’s intentions. The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. “White Tooth Man” rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while “Boy with a Coin,” the album’s first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes. Its seductive rhythms percolate and undulate, from the Psych-Bhangra-redux of “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” to the album’s last dance—a waltz—”Flightless Bird, American Mouth.” Compositionally, it is Iron and Wine’s most ambitious and accomplished recording to date. It’s also the most satisfying.
Hey, how are you? Thanks for accepting the friend request, we are currently working on an EP which will be released in 2010, when you get a chance check out our page and tell us what you think. If you like what you hear and want to support the band you can do so by adding us to your top friends or by forwarding us to a friend that might be into our type of music. Cheers :)
Microcosm Macrocosm Sun and moon and ants in motion Every living organism Follows nature’s laws Yin and Yang, plus and minus Ones and zeros, on and off switch Day and night, wrong and right Follows nature’s laws Gravity and antimatter Electrons hold atoms together Planets are just big grains of sand Space an airless ocean Microcosm Macrocosm Sun and moon and all that’s happened Omnipotent life breathing force Follows Nature’s laws The question and the cause Death will take them all Life begins all over again Following nature’s law
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this folk-carol on myspace... Poem 230 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (see my blog for details): CHRISTMAS SUNG SIMPLY
As gospellers have said, Beneath signalling skies, On land dusty to tread, A trough in a stable Was the strawy first-bed Of a divine baby - The forgiving Godhead.
A season for new hope - There then and here now; The yuletide of goodwill - There then and here now.
In respect of this chance, Beneath bright or dark skies, Faith's the star that we glance Attending Christ's churches And trying to enhance, With singing and ritual, Our God-loving stance.
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