On his third Iron and Wine full length, The Shepherd’s Dog, Beam sticks with his token formula of hushed melodies and moving lyrics as the ground-work, but goes in a whole new direction above. Like his flowing mane and beard, Beam grew out the production level on The Shepherd’s Dog, that includes African rhythms and expanded instrumentation of courtesy of Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus from Calexico, Califone’s Jim Becker and Tin Hat Trio’s Rob Burger.
Two words usually come arise when describing neo-folk troubadour M. Ward
