Iron & Wine Drops a Short Film
Anna Marketti ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Iron & Wine’s latest endeavor is their release of a series of various home recordings, covers, and live tracks Sam Beam made prior to his metamorphosis into Iron & Wine and over the course of his career, the first release titled Archive Series Volume No 1. Saccharine and heartbreaking, as any Iron & Wine album should be, the first installment in the series showcases Beam’s early talents as a songwriter, weaving intricate tracks laden with vibrato and emotion. In order to show off the tracks, he recently played a show in a very Iron & Wine venue- a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia called the Jerry Run Summer Theater.
He decided to record the performance and cut it with clips of interviews with Beam himself as well as the curator of the venue and his wife. Iron & Wine released it in conjunction with the Archive Series, functioning as a sort of lengthier version of a music video for the album. More so a visual aid, the half hour long “short film”, as they call it, picks Beam’s brain, giving him a platform to discuss the conception of the songs found on the album. Filled with witty quips, like the time he played a song for Bradley Cooper, and nuggets of wisdom, we bear witness to Sam Beam’s personal journey and foray into music. The video is titled “Dreamers And Makers Are My Favorite People”, pulled from a quote of him discussing Dusty Anderson, curator of Jerry Run.
One moment in particular stands out, following the performance of the song “Freckled Girl”. We seldom think of musicians as being prone to stage fright, but in fact, the very act of performing can be the most terrifying, yet thrilling part of their job. He discusses the art of performing and the fleeting nature of it. “Performing, whether it’s dance, or live music, or whatever, it’s about the moment,” Beam says, his beard brushed out in all its glory, donning a characteristic green flannel shirt. “And it’s a passing moment, but that’s what it is. It’s not something you can go back and fix, and develop, and then show later.” He goes on to describe how realizing this has impacted his recording process and the quality of his recordings. “That’s what makes some of the best recordings so beautiful- that they capture this fleeting moment that was normally reserved for loss.”
The performances themselves add to the video, which is refreshing, considering how often in documentary style videos like these made by bands the performances can act as mere background noise, barely supporting the meat of the video. Not only do they offer commentary from Beam as he introduces the songs, but they’re filled with the kind of raw emotion and slight clumsiness we can only imagine was involved in the initial creation of them. Songs like these were meant to be heard live- with a band that focuses on such heavy imagery and lyrical content, you only get a fraction of the intended emotional effect through a recording. Hearing his voice waver and break as he masterfully strums the guitar, eyes closed, transports us to the very confines of his mind where nascent Iron & Wine songs are born.
A bit lengthy, which can be off-putting if you’re not quite the dedicated Iron & Wine fan, but otherwise wholly interesting. Alongside all the commentary from Beam, we’re introduced to the bootstrap-pulling story of a sweet old man named Dusty Anderson and his creature of creativity, the Jerry Run Summer Theater. A homely wooden shack accompanied with camping facilities that hosts cheap bluegrass concerts performed by local artists is not the most seemly concert venue, especially due to its miniscule size and distance from civilization. But Jerry Run has harbored local talent for years, and has become a sort of convergence point for bluegrass and folk musicians in the Cleveland, West Virginia community.
It’s worth a watch if you’re interested in learning about the brains (and beard) behind Iron & Wine as well as the Archive Series, or if you just really want to see an Iron & Wine concert for free. Be warned: banjos are involved.