Years To Burn

2019 release. Calexico and Iron & Wine first made an artistic connection with In the Reins, the 2005 EP that brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together. The acclaimed collaboration introduced both acts to wider audiences and broadened Beams artistic horizons, but it was the shared experience of touring together in the tradition of Bob Dylans Rolling Thunder Revue that cemented their bond. Their roads diverged in the years that followed, but they kept in touch and cross-pollinated where they could. Although they often talked about rekindling their collaboration in the studio and on the stage, it wasnt until last year that their schedules aligned. Beam, Burns and Convertino reconvened in Nashville for four days of recording in December 2018. Together with steel guitarist Paul Niehaus, Calexico trumpet player Jacob Valenzuela and frequent Beam cohorts Rob Burger (Tin Hat Trio) on piano and Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Fiona Apple) on bass, they settled in at the Sound Emporium, a fabled studio founded in the sixties by Cowboy Jack Clement. An added ingredient was Grammy-winning engineer/co-producer Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Prices Midwest Farmers Daughter, Al Green, Jason Isbells Something More Than Free).