The Shepherd's Dog - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Following a one-record hiatus to collaborate with Tucson collective Calexico on 2005's In The Reins, Iron & Wine (Sam Beam, that is) recoils to the earnestness and intimacy that embodied his first two records, his cerebral words and phrases tunneled beneath an orchestra of guitar, banjo, keyboards, and strings. More definitive than ever, the rhythm and percussion complement Beam's voice, a lulling, almost eerie tone that occasionally recalls John Lennon's early solo work, especially on delicate tracks like the bluesy "Wolves (Songs of the Shepherd's Dog" and "Carousel," with its veiled references to Iraq. Those raised on the lo-fi routine of Beam's earlier work will find rawness and sanctity in the more upbeat selections: The CSN folk-rock of "House by the Sea" and "Boy with a Coin" and the atmospheric beauty of "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" and Shepherd's best song, "Lovesong of the Buzzard." With an organ swirling about and a slide guitar adding gentle flourishes, Beam concedes that "no one is the savior they would like to be," without realizing that, when it comes to fluent music and pristine storytelling, perhaps he is. --Scott Holter

More from Iron & Wine

Our Endless Numbered Days

The Creek Drank the Cradle

In the Reins, with Calexico

Woman King

The Sea & the Rhythm

Product Description
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' piece de resistance, 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.

Album Description
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' piece de resistance, 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.

Customer Reviews: Read 61 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Sonics Expand, Charm Remains October 1, 2007
28 out of 32 found this review helpful

What a remarkable album. Sam Beam takes new steps with each song, pulling in new instruments and new styles without losing his soul or his signature whisper. From steel guitar to jazz piano, each new addition is incorporated with aplomb, and nothing feels forced.

For fans coming to this straight from the last "album," Our Endless Numbered Days, the changes may come as a surprise, but those who've heard Woman King or In the Reins, an EP collaboration with Calexico, will recognize this album as a logical follow-up to those efforts. Indeed, two members of Calexico appear here, contributing to the filling-out of a sound that is bigger and better than ever. Iron and Wine can still do introspective, soul-searing songs (like album-closer "Flightless Bird, American Mouth) better than almost anyone. Now the band can make you dance, too, on songs like "The Devil Never Sleeps."

If that seems unlikely, consider this: So far, every time I listen to the album, I end up playing it twice. Sam Beam has discovered new worlds of sound. Won't you explore them with him?

5 out of 5 stars

No importance here understated-a redemption of sound September 30, 2007
19 out of 27 found this review helpful

I've just listened to THE SHEPARD'S DOG again. WOW, tho I would call myself a pretty well established IRON AND WINE fan, yet this is a real step for him to take. The great music I've always loved, starts from the lyrical content, especially if the lyrical content is surreal, suggestive of a spiritual dimention, and difficult to cut thru with the logical facilities. The new IRON AND WINE work readily stands up next to some of the masterpieces of the 20th/21st Century of rock music, without embarrasment. This is music that deserves and demands undivided attention, a good stereo, and ears that are ready to be blown off your head. Hey, something else cool too, for the first time, Bean is giving us his LYRICS on the back of a poster that comes with the CD. I've been captivated by this IRON AND WINE project, not only by the intense voice, or the really well arranged guitar parts, the well chosen notes and the well chosen space around those notes, but by the poetry of the whole image. I"m sure on the new CD, it isnt just string parts, or bass parts, that you are hearing that stretch out the sonic pallet, but sitars, lavish percussion parts, dulicmers, slide guitar/steel guitar, pianos, and just about every sonic psychedelic garnish imaginable. On this album, that trap of overproduction, and too much instrumentation, is avoided by subtle, light textures, which force the ears to pay deeper attention, before the next sonic onslaught of depth of timbres. At times, its like I'm swimming thru the most colorful coral reefs, seeing new, exotic life forms, and then transported to the most beautiful old growth forest glen imaginable, near a waterfall. At a time when life can be so very ugly, I do think that we need to turn to the artists to give us a little preview of HEAVEN, since we are so immersed in hell. For those of you who have used music all your lives to give you some glimpse of the hope of cellestrial beauty, go ahead and buy this. I can only say, with all sincerity, that this ALBUM is UNDERRATED, even tho its getting unamious critical raves. Anything less than 5 stars is a sham. Listening to 30 seconds on the previews on line wont give you enough of an insight. Sometimes, you have to go by faith, and examine a new musician's vision based on what others say. Why wait for 10-20 years for music critics to unamiously aclaim the quality of this work? Get it now, and have an ear feast.

3 out of 5 stars

I miss my old buddy Sam October 10, 2007
14 out of 23 found this review helpful

I realize that an artist can be in a tough place after a few albums. He doesn't want to get stuck in a rut, and he wants to try different things. I get that. What I don't get is not throwing his previous listeners a single bone. Why the vocoder (voice synthesizer) on "Carousel"? What happened to the chord transitions and the verse-chorus-verse that carried your sound so well before? Does the funk of "Wolves" really suit you? What happened to the guy with just a guitar and some moody ideas? What happened to the intricate finger pickin? I'm feeling a little left behind here.

I find myself concerned and puzzled by each track. I want to believe -- I want to "get it." I want it to grow on me. But it's just not the kind of sound I like. He was so good at what he did before, it seems a shame to make such a dramatic break from his established style.

The critics are eating this one up. They insist that his core sound remains intact. I disagree. Maybe I'm just a philistine, but I miss my old buddy Sam. His breathy voice doesn't carry above the dense mix, the fluttering guitar work is all but gone, and he seems to be actually *rejecting* where he's gone before.

I hope he finds new listeners, because I think he's a really good artist, and he seems like a cool guy. I also hope he punches out a rarities album for the people who liked the sound that's carried him through three albums.

1 out of 5 stars

Indie rock album of the year? October 11, 2007
11 out of 71 found this review helpful

Anonymous amazon reviewer#1: Let me first start off by saying that i'm a huge--
Anonymous amazon reviewer#2: whoah hold on there, sorry to interrupt you chief but uh let me first start off by saying that i'm a huge fan of Iron & Whine.
Iron & Wine: Gentlemen , this squabbling is beneath us.You two sound like a pair of hyperventilating republicans.
Anonymous amazon reviewer#1:Iron & Wine!! Oh my god!
Iron & Whine:I'm a buddhist.
Anonymous amazon reviewer#1: Oh sorry.
Anonymous reviewer #2: Well I knew you were a buddhist.
Iron & Whine:(incredulous tone)Oh really, I believe i've gone to great lengths to obfuscate my spirituality in the pursuit of challenging my listeners.
Anonymous amazon reviewer #1:Well that's what I gleaned from your material.
Anonymous amazon reviewer #2: I'm such a tampon.
Iron & Wine:That's a rather misogynistic way of putting yourself down.
Anonymous amazon reviewer #1: Misogyny is wrong.
Iron & Wine:Well now thats something we can all agree on.
(Iron & Wine begins to "strum" his " axe")
Anonymous amazon reviewer #1; You're a buddhist.
(Iron & Wine nods head , whether it is in agreement to the latter declaritive or in fact to his own bromidic rhythm though, seems quite
unclear.)

4 out of 5 stars

My mind, my ears, my body, my heart... September 25, 2007
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Having just bought the album it hasn't had time to sink in yet like Sam Beam's other albums have, but seeing so few reviews on the page I figured I should contribute some first impressions. First off, if you're a fan of Iron & Wine already you shouldn't need to read a review, just purchase the CD now!

Iron & Wine (Sam Beam) has captivated listeners from his first album, "The Creek Drank the Cradle" (TCDTC) with his soft, restrained voice and simple, subtly perfect guitar work--and held them since. This album does not disrupt the slow transformation towards a more band driven, "fuller" sound, evident on each of his consecutive LP releases. The percussion is much more present in these songs than in, say, "Our Endless Numbered Days" or TCDTC (which really didn't have any). Lucky for us the percussion section really pulls it off, managing to become a solid "spine" for much of the album while remaining diverse, interesting, and spirited.

The lyrics are incredible as always, on par in my opinion with Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, though not necessarily as direct, or dark as those two can be. Although the lyrics are consistently poetic and beautiful they don't quite reach the level of emotion as on his first album TCDTC, nor do they feel as thematically related as his EP "Women King."

At the moment, the stand out tunes for me are 'Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)' and 'Resurrection Fern.' The first is rhythmically intense; a perfect example of the evolution of Sam Beam's sound and perhaps a hint at a more experimental future for Iron and Wine. At times this song sounds like a Tom Waits from Rain Dogs, and at other times it reminds me of Bob Marley's later years. 'Resurrection Fern' on the other hand, is a throw-back to the "good old" sound of Sam's earliest songs...and it is a synergy of somehow both romantic and existential lyrical prowess and guitar picking simplicity. For me, this song alone was worth the purchase.

I'm very happy with this album, and will continue to support this amazing artist. If you're looking into Iron and Wine for this first time, I'd say this is a perfect starter to work your way back through their (his) discography. I give it 4.5 stars: it carries my mind, my ears, my body, my heart...but it doesn't carry my soul the way "The Creek Drank the Cradle" or "The Sea and the Rhythm [EP]" do.

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