Events

[INDIE] New recordings needn’t excite, innovate and/or transcend in order to succeed. The best music conveys emotion, but sometimes listeners need to work for the payoff. Indie folk-rock buds Sam Beam (a.k.a. Iron and Wine) and Ben Bridwell from Band of Horses have teamed up for this eclectic set of cherry-picked covers that’s initially subtle but offers some curious transformations that reveal with time and repeated listening.

Using a mostly Americana-steeped musical approach, the duo reworks Sade’s “Bullet Proof Soul,” into something slow-waltzing and dead-serious, while Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” becomes less weighty and seemingly campfire-appropriate. Lazy and languid, licks of pedal steel ooze throughout most of the tracks, portraying the feel of a late summer, deep-south afternoon.

For the most part, the duo takes turns at lead vocals with Beam staying true to the mellow stance of his earliest recordings, (his version of Paul Siebel’s “Any Day Woman,” made famous by Bonnie Raitt, is nothing short of delightful), while Bridwell rocks a tad harder through spirited performances of John Cale’s “You Know Me More Than I Know” and the Ronnie Lane tune, “Done This One Before.” Some treatments work better than others: the apathy, alienation, and ennui inherent in El Perro Del Mar’s vocal on “God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)” is gone altogether from Beam’s version and isn’t replaced with anything worthwhile. But when they join forces on a breathtaking run through JJ Cale’s “Magnolia” the melancholy is overwhelming in all the best ways. Iron and Wine with Ben Bridwell will play Canalside on Thursday, July 30.