Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great addition to, June 13, 2009
Some beautiful versions of the album tracks on this live collection. Excellent sound & great value for this low price. Made me go back and listen to all the early stuff again and appreciate the depth and complexity of the songwriting. Nice to hear versions of the early songs with more insturmentation. Thank you Mr. Beam.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
IRON AND WINE! LIVE! LIVE! ITS ALIVE!, November 8, 2009
For anyone who has ever bought an IRON AND WINE album or EP, they know how fantastic the voice, songwriting, and playing is. But unless you've seen this band live, you are missing a whole dimension of the band that is simply missing on the studio recordings. I never saw them live, but I DID see the band perform on AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, and was amazed. I had looked for this recording for some time, but its availability was limited. Finding it on AMAZON.COM was a great discovery, and I ordered it right away. Just like a Bob Dylan concert, where songs opens up, and are explored live, rather than just slavishly reproducing the studio version, IRON AND WINE harvest that same musical field. This is a complete show, and it has all the changes in tempo, style and musicial density, that you might expect from a band (or SAM BEAN), who has moved from solo guitar songs, to 8 piece band psychedelic folk peices from the SHEPHERD'S DOG tour. However, for SHEPARDS DOG fans, sorry, this music comes from the tour after the ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS album, and the EPS called WOMAN KING, and IN THE REINS. It was during the recording of those two EPS, when Sam Bean's music made its first metamorphosis into the TOM WAIT's "SWORDFISH TROMBONE" period. So, you get a nice selection of SAM singing some of the solo folk songs from the first album, and the sparse arrangements used on ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS, right to the early folk rock stylings from the EPS. Just like a good DYLAN concert, you get a bit of FOLK Dylan, a bit of ROCK Dylan, a bit of Acoustic country rock, etc.
The live album opens quietly with a beautiful rendition of "Sunset Soon Forgotten". The next number adds his wife's lovely harmonies, and some banjo to the guitar and voice mix. After that, the third song (Woman King) adds even more instrumentation, percussion, bass, violin and slide guitar. FREE UNTIL THEY TAKE ME HOME has a long, spacey, extended coda to the song, which gives the song a cool dreamy quality. Each song becomes more complex, extended, and explored, until LILITHS SONG, which adds a fantastic grunge guitar bit, next to the acoustic guitar figures Sam likes to play, and the contrast with keyboards, or an actual horn. The drummer stops playing percussion here, and sits down on his kit, and the song suggests what is to come later in the show. LATER. Because after this first "wave" of rock, it slows down again, and SAM plays a series of folk/rock songs. The percussionist is on marimba at times, and you have bongos, bass, and guitars. This live album has Sam's wife's harmonies a bit stronger in the mix, and that really makes these songs sparkle. Most of the repetoire are favorites from the albums, tho the EP songs are less known. Some material is "LIVE ONLY", songs unknown until the recent release of AROUND THE WELL's 2CD offering of these rare songs. I've played this concert so many times, that it becomes difficult to say "THIS IS THE STAND OUT TRACK". Let's just say its an "ON" night for the band. NAKED AS WE CAME is beautifully played, of course. This song has one of the most poignant, bittersweet evocations of post mortem love written for a long time. Also worth noting, the lovely slide guitar work interlaced with Sam's acoustic guitar work on BIRD STEALING BREAD-- difficult not to simply be estactic over. FREEDOM HANGS LIKE HEAVEN rocked out more than the album version. By the time the band plays TEETH IN THE GRASS (towards the end of the CD), you'd have to be deaf not to be euphorically transported. TEETH is one of the songs that gets overhauled live, into a song where pure, angelic folk rock meets the metalic "TEETH" in the GRASS, grinding, gripping, banging out a new version of that great song, that kicks the studio version's butt .
In the end, just ask yourself how much of a fan of Sam Bean's music you are. If you only like the folk stuff on the first album, and the first acoustic EP of outtakes from the first album, you might not like this live album. Altho I'd say 15-20% of the songs are just Sam and acoutic, and little else, you have the band included on most of the other songs. The recording quality is wonderful, and there's very little audience noise, except when someone yells out their approval or recognition of the material, and applause. I have one BIG complaint...WHO THOUGHT THEY SHOULD WAIT FOUR YEARS TO RELEASE THIS TO THE PUBLIC? And, do we have to wait four years again, until we hear the concerts from the SPEPHERDS DOG tour?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING!, September 22, 2009
It is always a wonderous feeling when a piece of music can move you to tears. Sam Beam has that ability; his melodies and lyrics are so beautiful. The live version of "Upward over the Mountain" is both undeniably haunting and bewitching. This album is a must have for Iron & Wine fans, and a great starting point for new ones.
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