Iron & Wine/Calexico collaborate

Mike Newmark Assistant Arts Editor

Has anyone else been awestruck by the recent alternative-folk explosion? One moment, I was rolling my eyes at Lindsay Lohan and William Hung, and the next moment Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Bonnie “Prince” Billy had become almost household names. It seems that people have rediscovered their love for singer/songwriters with intriguing stories and intriguing ways to tell them—artists who share a propensity for homespun folktales as well as unconventional instruments and recording methods. Suddenly, folk has become cool again.

Iron & Wine’s Samuel Beam and Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Covertino have been steady bellwethers of the burgeoning alt-folk scene for years. Both bands have released a grip of albums and EPs, and both have enjoyed consistent praise in music publications and on college campuses. Their collaboration was in the stars, no matter what the critics say, and both bands have delivered on the promise of their earlier work with their remarkably solid EP, In the Reins.

Musical collaborations can be separated into two camps: ones that work and ones that don’t. In the Reins thankfully belongs to the former, as the distinct qualities of the two bands interlock and create something very special in the process. Iron & Wine is fairly traditional man-and-his-guitar folk, while Calexico plays toward the “alternative” side, incorporating dub, jazz, electronica and film soundtracks. Notwithstanding their obvious disparity, the bands complement each other nicely; Beam provides the delicate, simple songwriting and Calexico injects eclecticism into the songs without getting too jiggy with the zithers.

Leadoff track “He Lays in the Reins” demonstrates how they pull it all together. Acoustic and pedal steel guitars, drums, fiddle and piano do an effortless, country-western waltz while the voices of Beam and Burns harmonize beautifully over the backdrop. The song also features electric guitar, a boisterous mariachi singer and the sound of a clopping horse—all undoubtedly from the wicked minds of Calexico—but none of it sounds excessive, as Calexico has tempered their experimental tendencies for the sake of pristine beauty.

In the Reins has a country-western flavor that’s more blatant than anything in either band’s oeuvre, thanks to steel guitars, fiddles, and other instruments usually reserved for country music. You can practically hear the snakes hissing during the sun-bleached rock & roller “Red Dust,” and the somberly lovely “Dead Man’s Will” shows our hero falling asleep around the campfire after a hard day of riding. The album’s tone places it close to alt-country act Freakwater, but unlike Freakwater’s stories of drunk boyfriends and frostbitten fingers, Iron & Wine and Calexico’s calming country-folk assures us that everything’s going to be okay in the end.

Fans of these two bands should be delighted. Some way, somehow, Iron & Wine and Calexico have created an album that adds up to more than the sum of their already accomplished parts. Far be it from me to bemoan disc lengths, but seven songs isn’t nearly enough; when “Dead Man’s Will” sighs to a close, listeners will keep these tunes in their head and simultaneously thirst for more. We can only hope that Iron & Wine and Calexico have the good sense to collaborate on a true album sometime in the future, but until then, we’ll wait patiently for our heroes’ return from the dusty trails and blazing sunsets out on the horizon.