Iron & Wine, Band Of Horses Frontmen Re-Team For Covers EP

Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam at the Newport Folk Festival on July 26, 2025 (photo: Newport Folk Festival).

Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell will follow up their 2015 covers album Sing Into My Mouth with an EP of new interpretations, Making Good Time, due Sept. 12. The lead track is Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” which can be sampled below.

Beam and Bridwell are childhood friends from South Carolina and ventured just up the road to producer Brad Cook’s Durham, N.C., studio to track Making Good Time, which also sports their renditions of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is,” Roxy Music’s “More Than This” and boygenius’ “Ketchum, ID.”

“Working with Sam again feels like a homecoming in so many ways,” says Bridwell. “To circle back 10 years after Sing Into My Mouth and expand the project is a wonderful dream relived. I chose to focus on ‘Luther’ after kinda hitting a wall wondering which songs would be best to contribute. After much hand-wringing, it hit me — why not just do my favorite song?’ I’d been playing the then-newly released GNX album on repeat and that song in particular with my girls to the point of exhaustion. About a week later, Kendrick strangled the game at the Super Bowl and ‘Luther’ would soon become a number 1 hit for so many weeks. Seems a little late now to share this as it’s been many months since recording it, but I knew that damn song was headed for big things. Praying we did some justice.”

Sing Into My Mouth rounded up an eclectic list of material popularized by everyone from Sade to the Marshall Tucker Band and Spiritualized. Iron & Wine is of course closely associated with its covers of New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” which appeared on the soundtrack to the beloved 2005 film.

Iron & Wine and Band of Horses will team for a short fall tour, beginning Sept. 18 in Seattle. The shows will offer sets from each group plus a collaborative portion meant to showcase the two covers projects.