Iron & Wine and I’m With Her

WXPN Welcomes
Robin’s Egg Tour
IRON & WINE AND I’M WITH HER
Support By Ken Pomeroy
THU, 24 JUL 2025 at 08:00PM EDT
Ages: All Ages (under 16 with adult)
Doors Open: 06:30PM
OnSale: Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 10:00AM EST
Announcement: Tue, 4 Mar 2025 at 12:00PM EST
With the 2014 formation of I’m With Her, singer/songwriters Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara
Watkins introduced an essential new force into the world of folk music: a close-knit alliance of highly
esteemed musicians, each graced with a deep understanding of folk tradition and unbridled passion for
expanding its possibilities. Since delivering their critically lauded debut See You Around and standalone
singles like “Call My Name” (winner of the 2020 Grammy for Best American Roots Song), the trio have
routinely taken time out from their individual careers to dream up songs together—eventually arriving at
a new album exploring themes of ancestry, lineage, and the collective human experience. On their long-
awaited sophomore LP Wild and Clear and Blue, I’m With Her now bring their luminous harmonies to a
soul-searching body of work about reaching into the past, navigating a chaotic present, and bravely
moving forward into the unknown.
In a departure from the stripped-back intimacy of See You Around—a 2018 release that turned up on
best-of-the-year lists from the likes of the New York Times—Wild and Clear and Blue centers on a far
more elaborate sound informed by the trio’s intensified sense of musical kinship. All multi-Grammy-
winners with deep roots in the folk scene, Watkins, Jarosz, and O’Donovan first discovered their near-
telepathic chemistry during an impromptu performance at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival, then co-
founded I’m With Her and began touring extensively and performing at acclaimed festivals across the
globe.
Produced by Josh Kaufman—a member of Bonny Light Horseman and multi-
instrumentalist/songwriter/arranger/producer who’s worked with Bob Weir and The
National—Wild and Clear and Blue ultimately adds a bold new urgency to their delicate entangling of
lived-in narrative, fable-like storytelling, and nuanced reflection on cycles of life.
When the pandemic began, and the world shut down, so did the process of creating
for Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam. In its place was a domesticity that the singer hadn’t
felt in a long time, and although it was filled with many rewards, making music was
not one of them. Reflecting on that time, Beam notes:
“I feel blessed and grateful that I and most of my friends and family made it
through the pandemic relatively unscathed compared to so many others, but it
completely paralyzed the songwriter in me. While so many artists, fortunately,
found inspiration in the chaos, I was the opposite and withered with the constant
background noise of uncertainty and fear. The last thing I wanted to write about was
COVID, and yet every moment I sat with my pen, it lingered around the edges and
wouldn’t leave. I struggled to focus until I gave up, and this lasted for over two
years.”
The journey back began with a recording session in Memphis to record a handful of
Lori McKenna tracks for the EP Lori with friend and producer Matt Ross-Spang.
“Recording has always been my favorite, and that session was an attempt to
reconnect with what I love most about making music. I could finally feel the blood
coming back into the body and the creative muscles beginning to relax and move
again.”
Soon a series of short tours were booked entitled “Back to Basics,” which, out of
necessity, were solo acoustic shows in smaller venues. They had an unspoken
weight to them for Beam and the audiences alike, and also an incredible sense of
relief for finally sharing art together and being back to work! A larger tour with
Andrew Bird followed in the summer of ’22, and Beam was inspired even more by
the excitement of collaborating with Andrew and his band and the warmth of
musical friends.
“By the time I got home, the paralysis had officially passed, and I was finishing
lyrics and booking studio time for what would become Light Verse!”
As Beam began to assemble the musicians he wanted for his record, one common
thread arose- they all lived in Los Angeles! Outside of his own pedigree, the
decision to work with engineer and mixer Dave Way at his studio Waystation high
up in Laurel Canyon was a logical step based on recommendations from two of the
joining players on the record. An additional session would also take place at Silent
Zoo Studio, where a 24-piece orchestra would lay claim to a handful of songs,
helping prepare them for lift-off.
“I’ve met and played with so many talented musicians from Los Angeles over the
years but never recorded there, and this felt like the perfect time to try. Tyler
Chester plays all the keyboards, Sebastian Steinberg plays the bass, David Garza
guitar and slide and stuff, Griffin Goldsmith, Beth Goodfellow, and Kyle Crane all
play drums here and there, and Paul Cartwright plays many various sizes of violin
and mandolin and wrote some wonderful string arrangements for the orchestra!
Even Fiona Apple was kind and generous enough to lend us her voice (that miracle
that sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time) to a duet called
“All In Good Time.”
Beam lyrically once again takes focus on a series of both fictional and personal
insights, filled with desperate characters and wide-eyed optimists, offering promise
and a dose of heartache, tears and laughter, life and love. Taking stock in the
album’s title, he jokes, “Light verse is a form of poetry about playful themes that
often uses nonsense and wordplay, and it’s my first official Iron & Wine comedy
album!…. Just kidding….”
While true this may be Iron & Wine’s most playful record, Beam says the title
mostly reflects the way the songs were born with joy after the heaviness and anxiety
of the pandemic. Where recent records like Beast Epic or Weed Garden gave air to
the disquiet of middle-aged frailty and brokenness, these songs trade that for the
focus acceptance can bring. Moment by moment, they delight in being pointed or
silly (or both) and attempt beauty over prettiness.
Light Verse arrives April 26th, and it’s Iron & Wine’s seventh full-length overall
and fifth for Sub Pop Records. Fashioned as an album that should be taken as a
whole, it sounds lovingly handmade and self-assured as a secret handshake. Track
by track, its equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare.