Iron & Wine @ HMV Picture House, 11 Mar

In an effort, no doubt, to recreate the continued expansion of his recorded sound, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam is joined on stage tonight by an ensemble of six musicians, whilst the setlist is dominated by songs from his most recent full-length offerings, this year’s Kiss Each Other Clean and 2007 LP The Shepherd’s Dog.

An early apology for the condition of his voice (he's recovering from a cold) is rendered redundant by the gusto with which he delivers the opening salvo of Boy With A Coin and Walking Far From Home, the band gradually building before hitting what sounds like an all-out freeform jazz jam on House By The Sea and Love And Some Verses.

Beam’s voice doesn’t fare so well on notional closer Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me, with the measured vocal layers of the recorded track sacrificed for all out bombast; but this is compensated for by an expansive encore of Wolves, and preceded by perhaps the highlight of the evening, a stirringly plaintive rendition of Fever Dream, from 2004’s Our Endless Numbered Days, illustrating that whilst this new direction is certainly admirable, the older, reflective stuff is mightily impressive too. [Paul Mitchell]