Iron & Wine songwriter Sam Beam has a lot more company these days. In the years since the lovely, lo-fi folk albums The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002) and Our Endless Numbered Days (2004), countless other bearded folk singers have sprouted like dandelions in May, yet few can rival the gentle grace of Beam’s easy, rootsy songs. Beam is planning a new Iron & Wine album for early 2011, but so far there’s no word on whether it will follow in the sparse mold of his early releases or the fuller folk-rock of 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog. Iron & Wine is well paired tonight with opener Heidi Spencer, a poignant Milwaukee singer-songwriter who this year signed to the indie-rock and folk clearinghouse Bella Union records.
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