Iron & Wine and Calexico Return With Familiar, Yet Progressive ‘Years to Burn’

When Iron & Wine and Calexico first teamed up in 2005, it was a quieter affair. Musically, standout tracks from that In the Reins EP were acoustic odes and musings like “Dead Man’s Will” and “Prison on Route 41.” Sam Beam and Joey Burns’ voices softly harmonized and trailed off into soothing whispers. Even the reception back then years ago felt quieter. Although the EP landed on the Billboard 200 album chart, neither band had the technical scope, range, or recognition that they have today.

Iron & Wine has released four LPs (and two other joint albums) since that fateful first collaboration, and Calexico has made five LPs. The former has grown from solo home recordings to a rich, multifaceted sound influenced by everything from funky jam-rock and ’70s AM radio to performances with full orchestras; the latter, beloved for blending Tejano and Americana sounds, has expanded to dabble in experimental cumbia (as explored in a story in ND’s Summer 2018 “(im)migration” issue).

The two bands have crossed paths in the past 14 years, but it’s taken until now to align songwriting schedules and inspirations. So on the grand reunion of these two bands, Years to Burn, Iron & Wine and Calexico showcase eight bold genre-twisting, multi-instrumental collaborations.

Part of Years to Burn’s success is that many songs sound instantly familiar. Beam wrote most of the song’s skeletons, which lends recognizable strumming and fingerpicking patters to tracks like “Father Mountain” and “Follow the Mountain.” His vocals, too, have improved; Beam said that he was most proud of his singing on Iron & Wine’s last album, 2017’s Beast Epic, and that confidence and strength carries over into Years to Burn.

But it’s Calexico’s spooky desert and border-town sounds that add such flavor to the record. In particular, the band’s trumpeter, Jacob Valenzuela, and pedal steel player, Paul Niehaus, offer invaluable contributions to Years to Burn. The album’s opener, “What Heaven’s Left,” begins with a smooth and slow electric guitar arpeggio, building into a narrative delivered by Beam. Meanwhile, Niehaus’ steel worms its way into the open spaces between lyrics and picking. However, as the song reaches its crescendo, it’s Valenzuela’s bursts of brass that unite the whole song. The 90-second improvisational outro transforms the song from a mid-tempo roots rock to a thrilling, Mariachi-inspired folk freak out.

A few additional tracks showcase Iron & Wine and Calexico’s true power of collaboration. Burns takes the lead on “Midnight Sun,” for example, but it’s “The Bitter Suite (Pájaro/Evil Eye/Tennessee Train),” an eight-minute collection of movements, that really celebrates what these two bands can do together. Beam wrote incomplete lyrics for the “Tennessee Train” portion, but Valenzuela translated elements into Spanish and sung them as “Pájaro” to start the song. The middle section, the instrumental, jam-worthy “Evil Eye,” bridges the two parts with moody vibraphone and foreboding, almost frantic, down-tuned guitar strumming. These moments of give-and-take, as well as joyful sharing, highlight both bands’ strengths. And all these years later, Years to Burn serves as a document to show how far Iron & Wine and Calexico have come, but it’s also a testament to how much we’ve all grown in our own time.