[image=left]http://www.alternativenation.net/gallery/files/9/9/4/woman_king_thumb.jpg[/image]I can’t help but approach an Iron & Wine record not released during the summer months with a hint of trepidation. Last years,
Our Endless Numbered Days, found Bear like Sam Bean lying in the grass one warm afternoon plucking away at his acoustic guitar delivering quaint little stories in a softly sung Southern voice and producing the perfect soundtrack to a summer afternoon. I was smitten.
Unbefitting then it seems that Sam Bean (along with Sister Sarah and a few friends) would choose to return in the coldest month of the year with this new EP. But it works. Opening song,
Woman King, no longer finds Bean stretched out in the park on a clear day but instead on an aged Mississippi back porch under a red sky in age old Tom Waits fashion. The slow melancholic feel continues effortlessly through the following two songs before Bean picks things up with
Freedom Hangs like Heaven, all awash with banjo and hand claps. Proceedings end with
Evening on the Ground (Lilith’s Song), a thick dirge like track (by Iron & Wine’s standards, The Melvins aren’t involved) that finds our bearded hero as far away from his 4 Track Recorder past as ever before while lamenting the “rocks and baby bones/ and broken lock on our garden”.
Woman King manages to be both different yet reassuringly familiar at the same time. Not merely a stop gap until the third full length arrives but a beautiful work in its own right. Nice to see he can work his tricks on me in more than one season.
www.ironandwine.com/ www.subpop.com/
(Release Date: 21/2/05)
EP: Iron & Wine - Woman King 
