Iron and Wine: The Shepard's Dog

I started listening to Iron and Wine a few years back, and every time they release a new album I love them a little more. The Shepard's Dog is a direct evolution from In the Reins, an album produced and recorded with Calexico.

The influence of those sessions is all over this album, larger arrangements, more complex harmonies and significantly more vocal presence than earlier albums. I appreciate the stripped down ballads of earlier works, but this albums dynamics gives it a little more room to wiggle. I've always thought of their earlier works as late night blueberry wine, crickets in the yard, summer breezes and lamenting loves lost.

This album finds me enjoying an afternoon with friends, driving down dirt roads to secret places and washing my face in sunlight. It lives in my iPod with Jim White, Damien Rice, Elliot Smith, Sun Kil Moon and Calexico.

Good for: Making out on the banks of a river, drinking beer in the sun. Going back to your place for dinner and undressing by the ashes of the fire (from Resurrection Fern, Track 8). It's like that.