Collaboration between musicians requires a delicate balance. At its best, it leads to broader vistas and juxtapositions that might never have occurred to the separate artists. At its worst, it's a sludgy mess.
Thankfully the joint efforts of Iron & Wine and Calexico on their "In the Reins" EP result in a harmonious blending of their styles with a few pleasantly surprising jaunts. Sam Beam, the sole member of Iron & Wine, still shows his skill for hushed folk songs. With the addition of Calexico's eclectic mix of mariachi, country and jazz, the resulting compositions are more muscular and engaging.
The collaboration has been a long time coming. If the stars had aligned three years ago, Calexico would have been the backing band on the debut album of Iron & Wine. It didn't work out then, but as "In the Reins" and their current combined live show demonstrate, it was always meant to be.
"I was just a fan of their music and thought it would be fun to try," Beam explains. "I knew I wanted to do 'He Lays in the Reins' with them, because I thought their instrumentation would work nicely with it. Then it was just a matter of picking [other songs] that fell tangentially in with the idea that 'in the reins' are these controlling factors."
Calexico's drummer John Convertino deflects all praise to Beam, "They're his songs. He just wanted the lusher sound and fuller arrangement [that we could provide]."
Convertino is more than a little modest about his band's contribution. According to him, Beam came into the studio with ideas about how to combine their sounds. "History of Lovers" is a prime example. A slice of bouncy Southern California pop, it's an unlikely product of either act.
"If you could have heard the demo ... it's slow, and Sam sings really softly," Convertino explains. "He came into the studio banging it out on his acoustic guitar. It has that groove."
"Lovers" will likely be a high point of their show when they play Stubb's on Sunday. Fully embracing the idea of collaboration, the bands are doing a long string of dates that will see each act playing a set before taking the stage together to perform "In the Reins" straight through.
"It's something short of a miracle, but we were able to pull off doing the tour in the [United States] and Europe too," said Convertino. "Sam isn't quite as known in Europe. So it will be a great experience to introduce him there. That's the reverse of here in the States, where we're not as popular as him."
There's that modesty again. With a long history of spectacular shows in Austin and the near-constant rotation on KGSR of their Love cover "Alone Again Or" last year, Calexico has earned a large fan base in Austin. With recent shows on this tour featuring surprise guests like Victoria Williams and Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE), the audience will be primed and ready for friends of both bands who might drop by.
At the time we spoke, neither Convertino nor Beam, who recently moved to Dripping Springs, would say what they have planned for Austin. Beam mischievously teased, "Even if I did know, I'm not sure I'd tell."
Calexico and Iron & Wine play Stubb's on Sunday, Oct. 30.
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