One Night Only Iron & Wine, Houston Chamber Choir Show Is a Family Affair

Three years ago, Sam Beam sat at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where his band Iron & Wine was nominated for two Grammy Awards. 
And sitting seemed to be about all he was doing. 

“It can be hard to pay attention,” Beam says, laughing. “I don’t know … maybe I’m just self-absorbed.”

He snapped to attention when a familiar name was called. Robert Simpson and the Houston Chamber Choir won a Grammy for their recording “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works.”

“This super-tall man stands up,” Beam says. “A lot of white hair. He’s easy to spot. And I think, ‘Oh, that’s my sister’s father-in-law.’ So we got to talking afterward.”

Simpson’s son, Rob, is married to Sarah Beam, Sam’s sister, who sings on several Iron & Wine recordings. Beam’s Iron & Wine is a difficult act to categorize. The gentle quality of his voice and guitar playing gets the group filed under folk, but the range of musical expression over two decades — from the bare bones “Southern Anthem” to the lushly layered “Walking Far From Home” — has been broad. Simpson founded the Houston Chamber Choir more than a quarter century ago, an ensemble that grew from humble beginnings to international renown.

So the two knew each other as musicians connected by family. They’d talked several times over the years about some sort of musical collaboration. But discussions never eked past the “We should ...” stage.  “It’s not that I didn’t want to do it,” Beam says. “But for a while, I didn’t think he was serious.”

He was serious. 

After the Grammy ceremony, Simpson touched base with Beam again. “I told him, ‘Let’s make this year the year,’” Simpson says. 

The process took a little more than a year. Typically when Beam plays in Houston, he’s coming from one city and about to head to another. But this time he’s not on tour. Iron & Wine and the Houston Chamber Choir will present Holy Smoke and the Flame, a one-time collaborative concert in Houston. It’s the season closing show for the Houston Chamber Choir, which has proven itself a daring and adaptable ensemble. 

This show is no exception: A chamber choir collaborating with a deeply thoughtful songwriter whose music exists in some space between folk and indie rock. It’s a pairing that looks peculiar on paper but makes perfect sense the more one knows about each group.

Iron & Wine possesses a particular pull. Beam’s whispery voice forces listeners to lean in, and the restless nature of his lyrics has resonated deeply with listeners and other musicians. “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” and “Naked as We Came” have been recorded by acts like Kina Grannis and Natalie Imbruglia. Scores of heartfelt readings of the Iron & Wine staple, “The Trapeze Swinger,” can be found on YouTube by those with a tight emotional connection to such a searching song. 

“You never know where one of your songs might end up,” Beam says.

He is a traveler himself – Simpson calls him “a seeker” – finding some draw in other artists’ recordings, without any regard for genre. He’s distinctively recorded songs by Stephen Foster, the Flaming Lips, Cyndi Lauper, New Order. 

And like Willie Nelson’s, Beam’s core sound is so distinctive that any song he didn’t write but chooses to play instantly becomes an Iron & Wine song. 

Beam first drew notice about two decades ago for “The Creek Drank the Cradle,” a collection of seemingly simple songs he wrote and recorded. The unfussy nature of the recording — mostly voice and guitar with a few embellishments — created an airy space for Beam’s opaque but meditative lyrics. His sound projected fragility, but at the center were thistly queries about life and death, love and sex, faith and religion. 

Beam has since collaborated with all sorts of rock and folk performers and also played with string sections and symphony orchestras.  

“I try to be up for the experiment,” he says. “I’ve done symphonic things, electronic things. Now, a choral thing.”

With the Houston Chamber Choir, he’s found a counterpart that operates similarly in a different field.

“I’m hopeful our vocalisms will put his songs in a new light,” Simpson says. “I hope it offers him something new. I can say with a professional choir, we’ve never worked with an indie folk group. So it’s definitely a new opportunity for us.”

Since starting the Houston Chamber Choir in 1995, Simpson has operated the ensemble with his ear open to anything and everything that might produce magical moments. “One of the things we pride ourselves most on is the flexibility, the ability to take on challenges,” he says.

In March, the choir presented “Ancestor’s Dream,” which included works by Black composers that weren’t rooted in the gospel and spiritual song forms. A little more than a year ago, the choir was part of an incredible multi-part collaboration that brought to life composer Tyshawn Sorey’s world premiere “Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)” at the Rothko Chapel. Like Beam with Iron & Wine, Simpson and the Houston Chamber Choir favor an expansive approach to their art. In early May, it will announce its 2023-24 season.

“When I sit down and think about creating a season, I think about what wonderful corners of our art form we can explore,” he says. “There’s a sense of joyful exploration for our concerts. And it’s wonderful to have these talented musicians ready to take on whatever I ask them to do and to really own it. It’s a choir without borders.”

A South Carolina native who now resides with his family in North Carolina, Beam spent time in Florida and Georgia. For a few years, he lived in the Wimberley area. His work is partially born of and partially a reaction to these places.

“I grew up in a Christian community in the church,” he says. “I’m not a Christian now, but it definitely painted my outlook on life. And I write songs that are based in a sort of Southeastern or Southern culture. Not that it’s like, ‘Check this out, it’s a road map of this county.’ But it’s an easy place for me to write from.

“Growing up in the country, I was interested in the nature and mystery of things. And that’s been enough for me. I’m interested in the power and mystery of all the things I don’t know.”

Simpson adds, “Sam definitely creates this poetry that is so profound. It’s one supported by a sense of belief in a greater power. Something overriding our existence.”

Put that way, Beam’s work sounds well aligned with the varied sacred music from around the world that gets performed by choirs. For Holy Smoke and the Flame — currently sold out with a waiting list — Simpson has selected a few pieces he feels will be complementary to Beam’s work. The format for the show will be Beam doing a solo Iron & Wine set, followed by a program of songs by the choir and then a set with the two acts together. Beam flies in just for this show at South Main Baptist Church and another organized by the Galveston Historical Foundation at the 1859 St. Joseph’s Church without the choir. 

Last October, Iron & Wine played White Oak Music Hall, which allowed the two to get together and discuss which songs from the dozens Beam has written might best suit the format. Simpson teases a few songs, including “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” which became a windfall for Beam when actor Kristen Stewart suggested it for a scene in the film “Twilight.”

“At first I wasn’t sure what we were planning to do,” Beam says. “These songs, they’re all over the map. I had no idea what Bob would do with them.”

Adds Simpson, “I think the people who know and love Iron & Wine will be happy with what we’ve chosen. And we aren’t changing arrangements. Sam will be singing what he’s used to singing. We just want to create something that has the sense of nuance and almost casual intensity that Sam’s music requires.”

This article was written by Andrew Dansby for The Houston Chronicle