Pitchfork: Iron & Wine, Calexico Reveal Details of Collaborative LP

Iron & Wine, Calexico Reveal Details of Collaborative LP

Remember when you were a kid and you thought combining two foods you liked would create some sort of delicious superfood? Remember how that shit never worked (ice cream pizza)? Thankfully, combining two bands actually can turn out better. Take, say, the dusty Southwestern sounds of Calexico and combine that with Iron & Wine's back porch sentimentality. What you've got is Lays in Reins, a seven-song mini-LP of some of Sam Beam's songs backed by Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico, as well as a few other Tucson musicians.

The particular deliciousness of this collaboration is pure speculation, of course, as the li'l long-player won't be available until fall of this year, but Burns seems pleased with the results. "It's kind of got that Tucson, Arizona sound," he told Pitchfork this week. "It was funny, in the process of mixing some of these songs, we would send [Iron & Wine frontman Sam Beam] the mixes as MP3 files over the internet. So he would listen to them and he would say, 'No, no. Put more stuff in there.' He liked the idea of this being something different that what he would do with an Iron & Wine record, where the arrangements might be a little more minimal. So we've got some instruments that fills it out a little bit." Tracklist:

01 He Lays in Reins
02 Prison on Route 41
03 History of Lovers
04 Red Dust
05 Burn That Broken Bed
06 16, Maybe Less
07 Dead Mans Will

Burns said Calexico and Iron & Wine will have some tour dates together this fall, but as Pitchfork reported on Tuesday, Beam has a few solo dates to keep him busy in the meantime, while Calexico are heading to Europe. Calexico's tour dates:

06-17 Lawrence, KS - Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival
06-18 Telluride, CO - Telluride Bluegrass Festival
07-14 New York, NY - Castle Clinton
07-16 Ottawa, Ontario - Cisco Systems Bluesfest
07-17 Quebec City, Quebec - Festival D'Ete International
07-21 Duisburg, Germany - World Games Plaza
07-22 Lorrach, Germany - Marktplatz
07-23 Sallent de Gallego, Spain - El Pireneos del Sur Festival
07-27 Berlin, Germany - Popdeurope Festival
07-28 Wien, Austria - Jazzfest
07-29 Nurnberg, Germany - Bardentreffen
07-30 Feldkirch, Austria - Poolbar Festival
07-31 Roseto, Italy - Soundlab Festival
08-02 Alberobello, Italy - Experimenta Festival
08-03 Pula, Croatia - Open Air Amphitheater