palebear's Full Review: The Creek Drank the Cradle by Iron & Wine
There are only a few artists capable of giving me that sense of timeless deja vu, the kind where a completely new album can strike you as so ensconced in the fabric of your memory that it seems as if it's been with you forever. And I don't mean that passing nostalgia that the songs from your old high school graduation dance will evoke. This past-to-present preternatural recognition can be scary sometimes, and it works differently for every person. One of these albums for me was the Red House Painter's self titled album (the one with Grace Cathedral Park). From the moment I first listened to that album I felt as if I'd listened to it many times in a past life living in windy and steep San Francisco. Well, I think I've found a new album like that in Iron and Wine's The Creek Drank The Cradle.
Armed with little more than a 4-track and acoustic guitar, Sam Beam has created the soundtrack for an updated version of the old Appalachian South. Or, perhaps a better description would be music for wilderness enthusiasts everywhere. If John Muir had brought along a guitar on his treks throughout the Sierra Nevadas, I imagine he might have played tunes similar to these. (Oh by the way, from his press photo, Beam has got the facial hair to match Muir as well.) The lo-fi upbringings of this album are very important, since the whispery vocals and plunking banjo like leads might have been coddled unhappily in a full recording studio. The songwriting is extremely strong, with fine hushed melodies and pastoral harmonies kicking in at all the right places. Beam plays all the instruments on this album to good effect, with excellent slide guitar and fingerpicking present throughout.
Aptly, a phrase from one of Mark Kozelek's songs comes to mind "like birthdays and old friends". This is the immediate reaction I got from Iron and Wine, that it was music that had been celebrated with acquainances of mine from long ago. Now, there are some detractors that would argue that the reason for this is because Beam sounds very much like Nick Drake and Elliott Smith with a bit of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" thrown in for good measure and I am definitely fans of all three artists. While this is debatable, when I first listened to Smith's "Roman Candle", I didn't get that immediate sense of memory whiplash and the feeling of past lives.
My strange musical deja view aside, I'd highly recommend this album to any fans of the three artists mentioned above, or to anyone who's interested in folk music played with the soul of the old mountains and hills.
Tracks
1. Lion's Mane - 2:49
2. Bird Stealing Bread - 4:21
3. Faded from the Winter - 3:17
4. Promising Light - 2:49
5. The Rooster Moans - 3:24
6. Upward Over the Mountain - 5:56
7. Southern Anthem - 3:54
8. An Angry Blade - 3:48
9. Weary Memory - 4:01
10. Promise What You Will - 2:24
11. Muddy Hymnal - 2:43
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