2013 was a fantastic year for Sam Beam’s Iron & Wine.  Their garrulous Ghost on Ghost album appeared all over the Best Albums of 2013 lists (including ours–soon come), and they wowed people around the globe (including us at the First Unitarian Church in LA) on tour with their rapturous big-band sound.

Adding to all of that is our favorite New Year’s Eve song of the year, Desert Babbler.  The song’s lyrics are obviously apt: “It’s New Year’s Eve, and California’s gonna kill you soon…Black houses in the hills and roadside hearts.”  We love the gestalt in which a homesick, guilty-sounding Beam sings about himself: “You left to look for heaven, but you’re far from that hard light tonight.”  Listen to the big band perform the song below.  The song’s lyrics follow.

Desert Babbler:

“It’s New Year’s Eve
And California’s gonna kill you soon
The Barstow boys
Buckeyes in the shadow of the moon

Black houses in the hills and roadside hearts
Dying for a place to fall apart
Who knew what you could learn to live without
Mother Mary’s lying in your mouth

Back home the kitchen’s warm with Christmas wine
And every girl has got an axe to grind
You left to look for heaven
But you’re far from that hard light tonight

So quietly we’ve lost another year
The desert put a babbler in your ear
Mean fireweed and I miss you again
Barstow boys are spit into the wind

Back home the hammer always has to fall
Crosses barely hanging on the wall
Someday I know you’ll never leave me
But we’re far from that hard light tonight”