All Iron & Wine, all the time!

At least that's what it's seemed like.  Today has been an Iron & Wine filled day.  Funny, because I'm not even a huge fan of the band.  Perhaps after a day like today, though, things will be different.

First off, I finally went out and purchased Around the Well, a collection of rarities and b-sides from the aforementioned Iron & Wine.  "Why buy a b-side/rarity album if you aren't even a big fan?" you ask.  Well...I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure why myself.  I've been wanting to finally give Iron & Wine a fair shake, but I kept finding myself too busy to decide on an album to taste test.  So upon seeing the release of Around the Well this week (and for the scant price of $9.99 at a local mega-store that I don't like to frequent), I decided the time was now, and the CD was this one.  I still feel good about the decision, but we'll see how it goes.

A little while later, I found out that Iron & Wine will be coming to my neck of the woods.  If your neck of the woods happens to be anywhere near my neck of the woods, then this is great news for you as well!  I'll paraphrase for those too lazy to click on links: August 20th at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City as a part of the Twilight Concert Series.  What's still crazy to me about this is that he's coming to play the Twilight Concert Series.  The FREE Twilight Concert Series.  That's just...amazing.  I'm all sorts of excited!

Finally, as if my Iron & Wine fueled day couldn't get any better, I got a tip from the fellows over at Whale in a Cubicle that Iron & Wine has a free set of acoustic demos for download on the webs right now.  The set features 8 acoustic versions of songs from The Shepherd's Dog.  Get it while you can here.  My personal favorite, and really the song that made me pay attention to Iron & Wine in the first place, is available below.  Ha, bet you thought you knew what song it was and were totally wrong, weren't ya?  Yeah, apparently a lot of people went totally bonkers over his "Such Great Heights" cover on the Garden State soundtrack.  I've heard it, it's ok, but it never sparked that awe-inspiring realization that I was listening to something great.  I guess it did so for others, which is cool, but I'll stick with "Boy With A Coin," thank you very much.

[mp3] Iron & Wine - Boy With A Coin (Acoustic)

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