Album Review: Years to Burn by Calexico

Ever since their 2005 collaboration on the In the Reins EP, Iron & Wine's Sam Beam wanted to work again with Calexico's Joey Burns and John Covertino on another record, and vice versa. The holdup was the busy work and life schedules of the three simpatico musicians; it took many years until they could find time to rekindle the creative spark that they had shown on the EP. They finally were able to clear some precious schedule space and in late 2018 spent four days in a Nashville studio working on songs with the help of members of Calexico (trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela, pedal steel player Paul Niehaus) along with keyboardist Rob Burger and bassist Sebastian Steinberg of the Iron & Wine touring group.

Full Review >>

Fourteen years since their last collaboration, the In The Reins EP, Tucson's favourite sons Calexico and Virginia's Iron And Wine have once again come together to release new music, this time in the shape of a full length album, entitled Years To Burn. Recorded in Nashville's Sound Emporium, Years To Burn consists of eight tracks written by both Calexico songwriters Joey Burns and John Convertino, together with Iron And Wine’s Sam Beam. Whereas on In The Reins Beam wrote all the lyrics and Calexico added their masterly Americana/Tex-Mex musical stamp, this new album sees a fully balanced partnership, with songwriting and music equally shared between the two bands.

Full Review >>

When Calexico and Iron & Wine released In the Reins, their first collaboration together, back in 2005, both bands were in a state of flux. Sam Beam had just released the Woman King EP, which added a few new musical twists to his disarmingly intimate acoustic songs, and he was two years away from releasing The Shepherd's Dog, which would redirect the next decade of his music into ever more elaborate jazz-folk compositions. Meanwhile, Joey Burns and John Convertino were incorporating Latin American styles such as samba and cumbia, not to mention more vocalists and musicians, into an increasingly orchestral and cinematic sound.

Full Review >>

Almost 15 years after hushed folk singer Iron & Wine (Sam Beam) teamed up with the Latin-infused country group Calexico on the beguiling EP In the Reins, they are back together for a new album, Years to Burn. In the thick of a nostalgic era when reboots are commonplace, the reunion, at face value, feels like an attempt by the bands to cash in on their past triumph. But to their credit, they're aware of how it looks: in press material, it's revealed the two bands joked the album should be called Nostalgia's A Bitch.   Instead of recycling ….

Full Review >>