Calexico and Iron & Wine announced today that their first full-length album together, Years to Burn, will be released June 14 via City Slang in the UK and Europe and Sub Pop in the rest of the world. One of the tracks off the album “Father Mountain” is already released as the artists have also shared that they will be embarking on a North American, European and UK tour. “Father Mountain” demonstrates the bluesy folk vibes of both artists.

These artists first connected with an EP titled In The Reins. This is what brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together in 2005. This collaboration expanded both acts’ audiences and broadened Beam’s artistic opportunities. The bond between the artists was truly cemented through the experience of touring together in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue.” Although they took separate roads in the years that followed the tour, they kept in touch and reconnected when possible making the current collaboration possible last year once their scheduled realigned.

Years to Burn is inherently quite different from In the Reins. It was recorded in Nashville with producer Matt Ross-Spang. It took five days at the Sound Emporium, a fabled studio founded in the sixties by Cowboy Jack Clement and the site of countless landmark sessions in the country and rock over the ensuing decades. The album features contributions from people like veteran Calexico trumpet player Jacob Valenzuela and Paul Niehaus on pedal steel. It also features Rob Burger on piano and Sebastian Steinberg on bass. The album includes ten new original compositions. Beam, Burns and Convertino all contributed to its work. Although the artists have different approaches to songwriting, the spirit of collaboration was shared in the studio in order to produce an instrumentally diverse piece.

The artists new collaborative album will be available at the start of summer on June 14. See the track list below and listen to the new song “Father Mountain.”

1. What Heaven’s Left
2. Midnight Sun
3. Father Mountain
4. Outside El Paso
5. Follow the Water
6. The Bitter Suite (Pájaro / Evil Eye / Tennessee Train)
7. Years to Burn
8. In Your Own Time

Photo credit:  Sharon Alagna