Iron & Wine

About

Also known as: Iron and Wine

The stage name Iron & Wine came from a dietary supplement called "Beef, Iron & Wine" that Samuel Beam spotted in a general store while shooting a film, which is a pretty good origin story for one of indie folk's most distinctive voices. Beam recorded his debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle, entirely at home in 2002, layering acoustic guitars, banjo, and slide guitar into something that drew comparisons to Nick Drake and Simon and Garfunkel. His cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" ended up in Garden State and an M&M's ad, reaching ears that might never have found him otherwise. Over eight studio albums, Beam has steadily pushed his sound outward, from the stripped lo fi of his early recordings to the pop inflected Kiss Each Other Clean and the jazz touched Ghost on Ghost. He collaborated with Calexico on the EP In the Reins, and "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" famously landed on the Twilight soundtrack after Kristen Stewart personally picked it for the prom scene. More recently, he teamed up with Fiona Apple on "All in Good Time", released in 2024.