"Love was a promise made of smoke in a frozen copse of trees"

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (Sub Pop, 2007)


Iron & Wine’s newest album, The Shepherd’s Dog, is one of my favourite albums of 2007. Why? First, because the songs are both beautiful, and the lyrics even more cryptic than on previous albums. Second, Sam Beam continues his musical evolution in a creative fashion: listening to The Creek Drank The Cradle (2002) and say, In The Reins (2005). Or even, Our Endless Numbered Days (2004) – the progression is constant and expanding – I get wait to hear what he does next time!
The Shepherd’s Dog is a combination of the work he’s done with Calexico, and Our Endless Numbered Days; in regards to the former, this is heard mostly through instrumentation, arrangement, and production, whereas the latter makes its presence known via the lyrical quality and intonation. It’s a very interesting combination that delivers some real gems, like “Carousel,” “Resurrection Fern,” and Flightless Bird, American Mouth.”

Let’s take a closer peek…

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"The Agent & The Apparatus"

I wish that people, and kids especially, bought and read books more. I have went to some libraries here in Mississauga, and in Brampton also, and I swear all the kids that are in there are on the public computers, or waiting to use one. And while I embrace new technology and learning methods, reading books should still be a high priority in any curriculum. Maybe I'm just getting older, I don't know; I would hate to think of where I would be had I not had books.

Anyways, that's all. Buy books, and try to buy them at second-hand or used stores if you can!



"Books buy people/Buy books, people"


when to start escape from
your beloved Playstation,
and pick up a pen to become
the scribe your father wanted?

when to tread out of the den
and away from television?
trade "reality" for another, and
blink to adjust to the sun.

when to "bank on knowledge," though
"knowledge" will not be understood?
when to "bank on the future" when
so few care to pick up a book?

but we cling to the mighty word
like politics to the absurd,
and look for strength in many places -
maybe it's in you,
maybe it's in these old pages.

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