Iron & Wine is the musical project of Sam Beam, a South Carolina-born former film studies lecturer, now living in Texas. A painter also, Beam’s roots in the visual arts signpost the refined and somber storytelling that weaves throughout his music. With a softly spoken delivery conveying a certain cinematic gravitas, Beam conjures wonderfully evocative narratives rich in downhome symbolism and vivid characterization.

Despite the immediately sophisticated nature of his songwriting, Beam’s first forays into music mainly existed in isolation, his music only coming to the attention of the wider world when a home-recorded track was featured on a covermount CD free with Yeti magazine. Although Beam would later expand his sound to include electric instruments and rich, lush textures, it was his early lo-fi recordings that caught the ear of Jonathan Poneman, co-owner of Sub Pop Records, resulting in the release of debut album The Creek Drank the Cradle in September 2002. That same year, Iron & Wine were to gather a plethora of new fans when Beam's tender and spare rendering of The Postal Service's 'Such Great Heights' was featured on the Garden State soundtrack. Building on the already weighty critical reception, second album, Our Endless Numbered Days further refined Iron & Wine’s sound, developing a homespun style now characteristic of the band. Recorded in Chicago with producer Brian Deck, the addition of a full band served to illuminate Beam's deft lyricism and intimate vocal delivery. This was shortly followed by 2005’s Woman King EP, and In the Reins, a collaboration with alt country band, Calexico.

In 2007, Iron & Wine released the casually atmospheric The Shepherd’s Dog, which debuted at No. 24 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart and earned praise from critics hailing it as a major musical leap forward. Fleshed out and replete with more ornate arrangements than previous long players, The Shepherd’s Dog saw Iron & Wine ease into the mainstream, assisted in part by the presence of album track ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’ in the Twilight at the request of actor Kristen Stewart.

In late 2010, Iron & Wine signed with 4AD and announced the release of their fourth studio album, Kiss Each Other Clean in January 2011. Not one to rest on laurels, Kiss Each Other Clean continues from where previous album The Shepherd’s Dog left off. The trademark hushed vocals and plaintive acoustic guitar of Sam Beam remain, this time complimented by multi-layered productions and a greater rhythmical sophistication. This progression is in part attributable to his new backing band, now expanded to an impressive seven members. Despite this swell in personnel, the songs retain the ornate elegance long associated with Iron & Wine, but are stretched in new directions. At once both funky and downhome, Kiss Each Other Clean hints at a variety of AM radio influences and a keen poetic sensibility. Ultimately though, it serves to underline the unique songwriting talent of Sam Beam and his continued development as an artist.