Details
Track Listing
1. He Lays in the Reins
2. Prison on Route 41
3. History of Lovers, A
4. Red Dust
5. Sixteen, Maybe Less
6. Burn That Broken Bed
7. Dead Man's Will
Album Notes
Iron & Wine/Calexico: Joey Burns, John Convertino, Paul Niehaus, Sam Beam, Martin Wenk, Jacob Valenzuela, Volker Zander.
Additional personnel: Natalie Wyants, Salvador Duran (vocals); Craig Schumacher, Nick Luca.
Recording information: Wavelab Studio, Tuscon, Arizona (12/2004).
Two indie-rock acts with remarkably devoted followings and a shared innate talent for creating dusty rural atmospheres, Iron & Wine and Calexico are naturally suited for collaboration, and IN THE REINS proves to be exactly what fans of both bands might imagine. Here Iron & Wine singer/songwriter Sam Beam offers up seven original tunes, with the full Calexico band--led by multi-instrumentalist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino--contributing an appropriately moody and intuitively dynamic backdrop. Like the WOMAN KING EP, this mini-album features Beam--best known for his hushed, minimal sound--working on a much larger scale, with horns, harmonica, organ, and prominent percussion adding to the disc's cinematic scope. The EP's only notable fault (if it can be called that) is its brevity; less than 28 minutes long, IN THE REINS is bound to leave listeners wanting more.
Industry Reviews
...These perfectly matched temperaments have created something heartbreaking and haunting--the sonic equivalent of curtains billowing in an open window. - Grade: B+
4 stars out of 5 - The famed Calexico textures add menace to gripping ballad 'Prison On Route 41', a dark giddiness to the title track, and clutter Red Dust's Southern swampiness with bleached bones.
3 stars out of 5 - ...[S]ounds like an indie update of Bruce Springsteen's NEBRASKA moved 300 miles to the Southwest....
Ranked #8 in Mojo's 2005 Americana Albums Of The Year.
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