Calexico, Iron & Wine

When Sam Beam began recording Iron & Wine’s first album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, he intended for Joey Burns and John Convertino to be his rhythm section. The entire record lacks drums, so it’s safe to say that didn’t work out. But in 2005, Beam enlisted their group, Calexico, to help expand seven of his unfinished songs. The resulting EP, In the Reins, projects the intimate vocals from Beam’s humble, lo-fi dwellings into a massive Southwestern soundscape. A handful of live shows followed, as did a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Dark Eyes,” but that was it for the collaboration, aside from an occasional song feature. Fourteen years later, the two groups have reunited for a full-length album aptly named Years to Burn. In support of the release, Calexico and Iron & Wine kick off their international tour at the Haw River Ballroom. With Daughter of Swords, the solo project of Mountain Man’s Alexandra Sauser-Monnig.