The Carolina Union Activities Board shook up its hip-hop-heavy season with its presentation of Iron & Wine Wednesday night. Even in a concert hall as massive as Memorial Hall, the performance felt intimate and was easily one of the best shows CUAB has scored in the past few years.
The Secret Sisters, a duo of real sisters from Muscle Shoals, Ala., opened the show. Their set drew heavily from ‘50s and ‘60s country and folk tunes, even throwing in a cover Patsy Cline’s “Leavin’ on Your Mind.”
Rather than the pseudo-Southern aesthetic that has become all the rage thanks to bands like Dawes and The Lumineers, the Secret Sisters’ sound was sincere and authentic. When they sang about river baptisms in “River Jordan,” it was easy to believe them.
Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam took the stage shortly thereafter, attempting to open with new song “Caught in the Briars” before forgetting the lyrics. He laughed and diverted to an older song, “Carousel,” before remembering and returning to “Caught in the Briars.”
A few more new tunes from Beam’s upcoming record Ghost on Ghost were sprinkled among the set. “Grace for Saints and Ramblers” was quick and clever, while the darker melody of “Joy” belied its otherwise cheery title.
The audience shouted requests between songs, some of which Beam accommodated. Most of the loudest requests he played — songs like the heartbreakingly beautiful “Trapeze Swinger” or the slightly mysterious “Boy With a Coin.”
Among these requests was apparently Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” which Beam briefly obliged before warning, “Sometimes you get what you ask for.” Beam’s songs may be heavy with all sorts of emotion, but that’s not to say he doesn’t have a pretty excellent sense of humor.
Beam closed the set with his cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” a perfect closing note. He returned to the stage for a single encore, playing “Flightless Bird, American Mouth.”
An interesting quality to the show was the humbling, humanizing effect it had on Beam. His songs have rendered him an indie folk titan — and rightfully so. But as he fumbled lyrics and joked around between songs, he seemed like he could be the “cool” uncle or a small-town troubadour.
