Iron and Wine

It used to be that Iron and Wine (aka Sam Beam) relied mostly on negative space — that is, quietness or the absence of sound — to accentuate the simplicity of its lo-fi folk songs. That's not the case with Beam's third full-length, The Shepherd's Dog. Using his 2005 EPs Woman King and the Iron and Wine/Calexico collaboration In the Reins as sonic cocoons of a sort, Beam has emerged with a more fully realized sound. Not that Shepherd's Dog is loud by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a lot more energy and motion than its predecessors.

Beam's placid singing has always beckoned listeners to lean in more closely, but it's not the sort that propels a song. Hearing his airy voice become slightly more assertive during these 12 songs gives the sense that he's crept out of hiding a bit. His lyrics are gently set in a colorful array of South American, African, Eastern, and electronic styles, in addition to the Southern Gothic sounds he has long worked with.

Details

Iron and Wine performs on Friday, Nov. 30, at 8 p.m. Admission is $28.50; visit www.paramounttheatre.com for more info.

Paramount Theatre in Oakland

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• Sam Beam
• Iron & Wine
• Tom Waits

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Percussion plays a central role. A myriad of drum tones struck in a syncopated pattern give "White Tooth Man" a churning pulse, made more hypnotic by a guttural, sitar-like drone and the undulating motion of Beam's vocal melody. He has called Shepherd's Dog his Swordfishtrombones after Tom Waits' 1983 musical turning point, and while it's not quite on a par with that level of drastic reinvention, Beam has definitely done well by fleshing out his increasingly complex songs.