Cover of Shepherd's Dog
Unable to wait until the release date of the new album by Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) – Shepherd’s Dog – until late September. I don’t understand why labels delay like this as it only increases the number of people who will (like me!) grab a leaked copy via the many p2p sources on the net rather than buy the cd or use a legal download site.
It’s a great album and well worth not waiting for!
The stand out track for me is called Resurrection Fern which you can hear by following this link
The mood of the song reminds me a lot of ‘The Trapeze Swinger’ which has not been released on an Iron & Wine album, only on the soundtrack album to the movie ‘In Good Company’. ( An excellent live version of this track can however be found on the concert with Calexico which can be downloaded from NPR here ).
Resurrection Fern is equally ambiguous in terms of meaning being couched in highly poetic language that I find very moving even if I would be hard pushed to explain what the song means.
Something of the distinctive tone of the track can be drawn form these lines:
“And we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire / Both our tender bellies wound in bailing wire / All the more a pair of underwater pearls / Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern”
I love the way he combines the image of precious pearls with the image of sturdy resiliance of the oak tree and this type of fern which can thrive on minimal natural resource, apparently being capable of existing for long periods without water. I confess I have no idea why someone should wrap themselves in bailing wire!
Elsewhere he sings of: “The babies breath, our bravery wasted and our shame”, words which suggests to me he’s referring to the corruption of innocence through experience. Frankly, pinning meaning down like this is not crucial since a sense of mystery is part of the reason it is so effective.
ANIMAL MY SOUL 
Have you considered that the lines referring to the two young boys’ bellies being wound in bailing wire might be an evocative description of their emotions in the moment–shame, guilt, etc. The cliche “a knot in my stomach” seems to have been very nicely avoided here.
Thanks for the comment, jderrida – I hadn’t thought of it that way but I think your interpretation works well.
It’s the very avoidance of clichéd languauge that makes Sam Beam’s songs so poignant – ‘a knot in the stomach’ wouldn’t have been anywhere near as memorable.
I love Resurrection Fern! It seems to be a story of murdered children, to resurrect their precious lives.