Iron and Wine in NOLA

[dean_martin]

Wife and I and 2 sons and their girlfriends are going to the Iron and Wine show at House of Blues in New Orleans. Don't know if we have any regulars from that area, but if you plan to be there I'll treat you to a pour of special bourbon at the Bourbon House before or after the show.

[Swish]

Duuuuuuude. I'm so jealous. I see it's this Saturday so have a blast. The closest they'll play to my locale is Radio City and I'm not traveling that far to see them. I am looking forward to the release of their first record in like 3 years? Yeah, it's been about 3. Should be awesome since they've had all this time to work on it. Bastards.

[dean_martin]

Duuuuuuude. I'm so jealous. I see it's this Saturday so have a blast. The closest they'll play to my locale is Radio City and I'm not traveling that far to see them. I am looking forward to the release of their first record in like 3 years? Yeah, it's been about 3. Should be awesome since they've had all this time to work on it. Bastards.

The show was great - one of many highlights during our stay in New Orleans. Nomo was the opening act. I had never heard of them, but they had a unique sound and played a variety of intstruments. (Kind of Blue modalities meet Head Hunter beats.) Their trumpet and sax player joined Iron and Wine for the whole show.

Almost immediately after Nomo broke down their stuff, Sam Beam came out by himself and performed Filghtless Bird, American Mouth with only a couple of strums on the guitar. It has some challenging falsetto high notes but he made it through. With each song more and more musicians came out to join him on stage. The two percussionists kept the intricate rythms going for the rest of the show. Sam must be a low talker because it was hard to understand him between songs (no problem hearing him sing). He did introduce at least one song as new which is good news. There were at least 3 or 4 other songs that I hadn't heard. They had some fresh takes on songs off The Shepherd's Dog that worked well live. A couple of the instrumental jams they went into at the end of a familiar song transcended space and time. It was an appreciative crowd. I don't think I've seen or heard such an enthusiastic ovation before an encore which was Boy with a Coin which rocked.

[Swish]

The show was great - one of many highlights during our stay in New Orleans. Nomo was the opening act. I had never heard of them, but they had a unique sound and played a variety of intstruments. (Kind of Blue modalities meet Head Hunter beats.) Their trumpet and sax player joined Iron and Wine for the whole show.

Almost immediately after Nomo broke down their stuff, Sam Beam came out by himself and performed Filghtless Bird, American Mouth with only a couple of strums on the guitar. It has some challenging falsetto high notes but he made it through. With each song more and more musicians came out to join him on stage. The two percussionists kept the intricate rythms going for the rest of the show. Sam must be a low talker because it was hard to understand him between songs (no problem hearing him sing). He did introduce at least one song as new which is good news. There were at least 3 or 4 other songs that I hadn't heard. They had some fresh takes on songs off The Shepherd's Dog that worked well live. A couple of the instrumental jams they went into at the end of a familiar song transcended space and time. It was an appreciative crowd. I don't think I've seen or heard such an enthusiastic ovation before an encore which was Boy with a Coin which rocked.

That deal with Sam starting out by himself and then adding musicians along the way has been done before, most notably my The Talking Heads during the Stop Making Sense tour. Nice review and makes me want to hear the new release as soon as it's available.

[dean_martin]

That deal with Sam starting out by himself and then adding musicians along the way has been done before, most notably my The Talking Heads during the Stop Making Sense tour. Nice review and makes me want to hear the new release as soon as it's available.

We don't make too many shows so we have to pick and choose carefully. This year we've seen Norah Jones and Iron and Wine. About 2 or 3 a year has been our average. Planning is the key. We're way past spontaneous.

Here's an example of how we have to plan: Wife has family in Jackson, MS. A neice has a new baby. Wife wants to see the new kid. I want to see North Mississippi Allstars who are playing at Hal and Mal's in Jackson on Dec. 30. Could be a roadtrip if we board the dogs, make arrangements at work, get good hotel rates, etc.