Iron & Wine’s “lost” debut album, Tallahassee; Archive Series Volume no. 5, will be released on May 7 via Sub Pop. The songs had been recorded over a two-year period as the band’s Sam Beam attended Florida State University, with the band’s official debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle, being released three years later.

According to a press release, “the eleven-song collection was culled from a number of recordings that had been (mostly) forgotten by Beam himself but had been preserved by former roommate and one-time Iron & Wine member, EJ Holowicki.”

The tracks had been recorded in Beam and Holowick’s house near their college campus, with Holowick acting as the engineer and bassist for the album. The album is said to sound similar to much of Iron & Wine’s early releases, including The Creek Drank the Cradle, The Sea & The Rhythm and In the Reins.

Iron & Wine’s most recent release had been Weed Garden, which had come out in October 2020. Iron & Wine had been set to tour with Andrew Bird last summer, the dates being postponed due to the ongoing pandemic. Beam also sat down with mxdwn for an interview in 2019, alongside Calexico’s Joey Burns prior to the release of their collaborative album, Years to Burn.

“I think as a younger man, I was worried about doing everything right and now I like team effort,” Beam said. “Everyone has opinions about what it should sound like and it’s nice to come together and make something that we all couldn’t have individually made.”

Archive Series No.5: Tallahassee Recordings tracklist:

1. Why Hate Winter
2. This Solemn Day
3. Loaning Me Secrets
4. John’s Glass Eye
5. Calm on the Valley
6. Ex-Lover Lucy Jones
7. Elizabeth
8. Show Him the Ground
9. Straight and Tall
10. Cold Town
11. Valentine

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna