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Review: 'IRON & WINE'
'Archive Series Vol.5: Tallahassee Recordings'   

-  Label: 'Sub Pop Records'
-  Genre: 'Folk' -  Release Date: '7th May 2021'

Our Rating:
This release is a lost-in-time album from ‘Iron & Wine’, aka the impressively bearded Sam Beam.

It was recorded over the course of 1998 -1999 while Beam was studying at Florida State University with the intention of pursuing a career in film. The tracks precede his official Sub Pop debut, ‘The Creek Drank the Cradle’, in 2002.

At the time Beam shared a house with future bandmate EJ Holowicki. The two recorded close to twenty-four songs, ideas and sketches with EJ on bass and Sam on vocals, guitar, harmonica and drums.

The tracks were miraculously preserved on a hard drive for the last twenty years but despite this basic format they are surprisingly polished. Beam sounds confident and less whispery than on subsequent studio albums. The eleven songs certainly don’t seem like throw away demos or outtakes.

This ‘Archive Series Volume No.5’ belatedly follows on from the 16 demos of ‘Archive Series, Vol. 1’ released by Black Cricket Recording Co. in 2015. ‘Volume 3’ was a brilliant two track EP on that same label from 2016. I’m not sure what became of Volumes 2 and 4.

The opener, Why Hate Winter, is typical of Beam's quiet, unassuming manner. It is the poetic antithesis of macho posturing as he advises “Don’t offer your love because I’m not a man who can take it.”   

In Ex-Lover Lucy Jones we get further proof that Mr Beam is a decent man who is not one for bitter recriminations after a break up. He even goes so far as to prepare a ”sacred stack of stones” in honor of his ex.

Overall, these Tallahassee Recordings may be songs from a room, but it is a room in a cosy home with a warm fire and more than enough comfort blankets to go around.

Iron & Wine website
  author: Martin Raybould

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IRON & WINE - Archive Series Vol.5: Tallahassee Recordings