Archive Series Volume No. 5: Tallahassee Recordings

The “lost-in time” debut album of Iron & Wine, the Archive Series Volume No. 5: Tallahassee is a collection of songs recorded in 1998 and 1999—three years before Iron & Wine’s official debut album The Creek Drank the Cradle was released in 2002. At the time, Sam Bean was still attending film school at Florida State University and was not yet playing publicly. But Beam shared these recordings with Michael Bridwell (brother of Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses) and they ultimately ended up in the ears of Jonathan Poneman from Sub Pop records.

The album contains 11 of the 24 songs recorded in Sam Beam and EJ Holowicki’s shared home. Dead Mans Will and In Your Own Time, released with Calexico, were also recorded at this time.