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Day Three Hundred Twenty Two

So, after another twenty four hours and a bit of information gathering, I'm ready to discuss the Iron & Wine portion of last night's gig. Everything I'd gotten by them in the weeks leading up to the show had been the early stuff, where it was essentially Sam Beam and an acousitc guitar. Consequently, that's what I was expecting when we went to the gig. And Beam shows up with a full band and a horn section. A horn section! Which, usually, I would love, mind you. He did most of the show completely electric. Talk about feeling totally thrown. Some of it I really loved, other stuff, not quite as much. Granted, I'm not sure how much of what I didn't like was because it wasn't what I had expected, or what the situation is on that one.

Needless to say, I had Iron & Wine related discussions with G. at work today. She's a fan, and she basically told me that what I heard was the really, really early stuff (which I sort of knew), and that he had expanded his sound to go electric and incorporate more orchestral instrumentation as he went along, which would explain the horn section. She also said that he has a tendency to stretch things out a lot in concert, which would explain why some of his instrumental breaks seemed to be there just for the sake of being there. She assured me that he's more concise on record. This leads me to suspect that I'll need to hear the later albums before I can fully form an opinion on the music.

Apparently I missed J. online tonight. He tells me that he has finished up work on the first tune in ProTools. He added drums & bass, and he says that it really gives you "a feel for what the song would sound like finished." He's planning on starting on another one tomorrow during the day. If that's not motivation for being up early in the morning, then I don't know what is. He's curious to hear my reaction to what he has, but probably not as curious as I am to hear what he's got. He's also not entirely sure about what he's going to put rhythm section behind next, and I have a couple theories on that, so maybe I can help him figure it out in the morning. Nothing motivates me to keep working on these tunes more than a bit of progress being made.

Picked up The Head & The Heart at work today. I was right, the record is really good. Not quite as much punch behind the songs in studio as there was live, but that's to be expected, especially for a debut album. The piano is still in the forefront, which is good. (Didn't sound much like a guitar player there, did I?).

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