South Carolina singer-songwriter Sam Beam has been performing as Iron & Wine for almost a quarter of a century. He’s had plenty of “breakout moments” throughout his career — his wildly popular cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” in 2002 (which gained major momentum from the Garden State soundtrack), his hit second and third albums, Our Endless Numbered Days and The Shepherd’s Dog (the latter of which was named one of the top ten best albums of 2007 by Paste) and especially the inclusion of “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” in the prom scene of the 2008 movie Twilight, hand-selected by Kristen Stewart herself.
Beam stopped by the Englert Theatre in Iowa City as part of the tour supporting his new eighth studio album, Hen’s Teeth, which is the darker companion record to 2024’s Light Verse. Hen’s Teeth was a full-circle moment for Beam’s illustrious career, as it features the vocals of his daughter, Arden, who grew up alongside the Iron & Wine project.
“[Working with Arden was] incredible. It was amazing,” Beam said. “She was born right around the time the first record came out, so it's a nice milestone. She’s pretty cagey; I tried to get her [touring] out on the road, but she was like, ‘Nope!’ ... She’s more of a visual artist.”
Hen’s Teeth’s title comes from the old expression “as scarce as hen’s teeth,” which Beam has embraced as a metaphor for the album itself.
“Hen’s teeth do not exist. And that’s what this record felt like: a gift that shouldn’t be there, but it is; an impossible thing, but it’s real,” Beam said in a press release.
Beam has a habit of picking up turns of phrase and running with them lyrically. A prime example of this is “Grace Notes,” a standout track on Hen’s Teeth.
“I like songs where people are doing things, and so [“Grace Notes”] had a lot of stuff happening,” Beam said. “I also collect phrases or ideas, and ‘Grace Notes’ is a technical term, a musical term — types of chords — and so the song just started to strike me as, you know, moments in your life being notes in a chord, and so it all kind of molded in together.”
Recently, Beam has been lending his poetic prowess to another type of stage: Broadway.
“My buddy, Lindsey Ferrentino, she's a playwright,” Beam said. “She's wanted to work on an adaptation of ‘The Cherry Orchard,’ a Chekov play, but she wants to set it in Florida. She’s from Florida, in the orange groves. We've been working on it for a couple of months, it’s been really fun.”
Theatrical performance is not a new medium for Beam. Before Iron & Wine, he was a film and cinematography professor at the University of Miami and Miami International University of Art & Design. While the movie that made him a household name, “Twilight,” is generally not considered a cinematic masterpiece by many film critics, Beam does hold a positive opinion of the vampire romance.
“It’s incredible,” Beam laughed. “Very scary, you know, lots of blood.”
Beam may kindly joke about vampire soundtracks, but the beating heart of his Iron & Wine project has remained consistent for the past quarter-century: the grace notes that are the memories and connections made in everyday life. On Hen’s Teeth, those simple moments are cherished like the impossible gift its title suggests.
