Iron & Wine is the stage-name of American singer-songwriter Sam Beam. Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, Sam Beam has been creating music as Iron & Wine for over a decade, and is firmly ensconced in the American Alternative Indie Rock Cannon. When the world shut down because of the pandemic, so did Beam’s creative process. The journey back began with a recording session in Memphis with friend and producer Matt Ross-Spang. Soon a series of short tours were booked entitled “Back to Basics,” which, out of necessity, were solo acoustic shows in smaller venues. A larger tour with Andrew Bird followed in the summer of ’22, and Beam was inspired by the excitement of collaborating with Andrew and his band, and by the warmth of spending time with musical friends. By the time that tour ended Beam felt as though the creative paralysis brought on by Covid had officially passed, and he began booking studio time for what would eventually become “Light Verse,” his most recent, and seventh, full-length album. “Light Verse” takes lyrical focus on a series of both Beam’s fictional and personal insights. Although it is Iron & Wine’s most playful album to date, Beam says the title reflects the way the songs were born with joy after the heaviness and anxiety of the pandemic ended. Taken as a whole, the moments captured on the album delight in either being pointed, or silly, or both. Track by track, it is equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare.