Girl With A Coin

This is basically a blog I’ve written because I have a huge (and some say quite unhealthy) obsession with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, so much so that as a 23 year old woman, I cried when I couldn’t make it to an Iron & Wine gig recently. Should I have admitted that? I don’t know. I was going to blog about other stuff, but I’ll stick to the whole ‘I love Sam Beam’ thing, and make this about all things Sam.

Iron & Wine is the stage and recording name of singer-songwriter Sam Beam. Born 26th July 1974. He has released three studio albums and several EP’s and singles. Apparently, he took the name Iron & Wine from a dietary supplement called “Beef Iron & Wine” that he saw in a store one day whilst shooting a film. His friend Ben Bridwell, of Band of Horses (but at the time part of the band Carissa’s Weird) sent out copies of demos that he’d made, and the owner of Sub Pop Records contacted him personally to propose a recording deal. However, due to his wife being in education and having small children to look after, this was a bit of a lengthy affair. Eventually, he was signed to Sub Pop and has been releasing nothing short of amazing records on the label since.

Watch Sam Beam and swoon over his amazing smile, marvel at the awesomeness of his beard, and wish you could eat Ben & Jerrys chocolate ice-cream with him when you’re feeling down when he’s interviewed on Cooking With Rockstars here.

www.ironandwine.com

Iron & Wine on Myspace.

MP3 – Iron & Wine – Woman King.

Watch a video on Fabchannel of the entire live Iron & Wine concert at Paradiso in Amsterdam, January ’08! You can’t possibly leave this blog without clicking this link and seeing how amazing Sam is live! Every single track is amazing. This is also an awesome website to check out some other bands, it’s really simple to use and doesn’t take forever for the videos to load, etc. And for all you people (and I’ve come across a few of you, grrr) who only seem to love Boy With A Coin, there’s an excellent live version of that on there too which has more of a reggae beat behind it! Resurrection Fern made me shiver, it’s so beautiful, and Sam does one of those little nervous ‘Oops, I made a mistake’ laughs that we all love him for. And Sam Beam looks sooooooooo good! Win! WATCH!

Another video containing one of Sam’s amazingly adorable ‘Oops, I made a mistake’ laughs was recorded for the Behind Closed Doors sessions, in which artists play one or two acoustic songs in an elevator (which Sam calls retarded). He sings Die, which although being one of the shortest songs I’ve heard him sing, is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve heard him sing. He also sings Boy With A Coin. It’s great to see Sam intimately like this, and I wish there were more videos like this! He has the most beautiful voice, and his smile makes me swoon. He altogether makes me swoon.

[Youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EHdDtyDMKSw]

You should check out Behind Closed Doors if you haven’t already, there are a host of other amazing artists on there such as The Shins, Apples in Stereo, etc.

This is the video for Naked As We Came, which Sam Directed himself. He really is unbelievably talented and as well as being an excellent musician and painter, he makes excellent videos. Sam was once a professor of film and conematography at the University of Miami and the Miami International University of Art and Design, after graduating from the Florida State University Film School with an MFA degree. 

[Youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-A-iiPoLg]

If you’ve been lucky enough to catch Iron & Wine live, it may be worth checking out Played Last Night.com, where you can buy recordings of the live shows. Played Last Night.   

MP3 – Iron & Wine – Southern Anthem

Ok, although I don’t think you can EVER get enough of Iron & Wine/Sam Beam, I think I better leave this post alone now, or I’ll continue to add more and more and add even more and …are you seeing the pattern?

 One more image for the road though, eh! And why not make it my picture ever!