MUSIC

Iron and Wine: Over the course of his ten-year career, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam has become one of today’s greatest story tellers, crafting meticulous tales full of forlorn love, religious imagery and wistful dreams. A classic American tunesmith with a precocious musical signature, Beam’s early albums were sparse, intimate solo affairs, but his 2007 release, The Shepherd’s Dog, introduced layered textures and poly-rhythmic sounds that allowed his lyrics to spring to life. It’s only natural then, that Beam took this sonic collage and built upon it for his most recent album, Kiss Each Other Clean, which was released in January 2011. Beam’s masterful storytelling and musical experimentation relies on the conflict from combining the happy and the sad, the heavy and the light, and creating an ongoing narrative between the artist and the listener. It’s the blending of all of these elements that allows Kiss Each Other Clean the versatility to paint a true portrait of life.

Kathleen Edwards: Since the release of her 2003 debut LP, Failer, Kathleen Edwards has toured across Canada, USA and Europe several times over, sharing the stages with the likes of My Morning Jacket, John Doe and Willie Nelson.