When Sam Beam, a.k.a. Iron & Wine, broke into the music scene with his somber and introverted debut The Creek That Drank the Cradle no one could have predicted that the little Folkie from Florida who barely rose above an audible whisper would one day make an album like The Shepherd's Dog, a full-fledged full-band masterpiece.

It's not like The Shepherd's Dog just came out of thin air however; Beam had been progressing in this direction over his last couple of projects. His In the Reins EP with Calexico as his band and his Woman King EP were experimental stepping stones that suggested he might evolve well beyond the Cradle, but I don't think many would have guessed that he was building toward his own personal Taj Mahal.

Beam and producer Brain Deck (Modest Mouse, Buit to Spill) fill The Shepherd's Dog to the brim with sitar, handclaps, piano work and even some electric guitar jamming that make the entire proceedings tremendously saturated. Yet with all these new sonic expressions, Beam's haunting and gentle melodies are still at the core of the structure. All of this makes for Beam's most fantastic work thus far and will certainly go down as one of the best albums of the year.