On the surface, Calexico and Iron & Wine might seem unlikely to mesh. Calexico, from Arizona, plays rangy rock with surf-guitar reverb, steel guitar, vibraphone and mariachi trumpets. Iron & Wine is simply the Florida songwriter Sam Beam, whose songs usually revolve around gentle guitar and whispered imagery. Yet both Calexico and Iron & Wine invoke place, myth and memory in their songs: Calexico looking toward the Southwest, Mr. Beam toward the South. And both build far-reaching songs on modest patterns.
They have been touring together this year, adding various guests each night on the model of Bob Dylan's mid-1970's Rolling Thunder Revue. And at Webster Hall on Tuesday night, they were good for each other. For its own set, Calexico chose its most thoughtful, panoramic songs. Joining Mr. Beam a few at a time, Calexico's musicians opened up new, shimmering spaces in Iron & Wine songs or gave them an earthy foundation. Then they all shared the songs from their recent collaborative EP, "In the Reins" (Overcoat), which merge their fascinations: family and catastrophe for Mr. Beam, the frontier for Calexico.
Mr. Beam's folky melodies and modest voice - he can sound almost exactly like the Donovan of the 1960's - conceal an unsparing eye. His songs meditate on death and loss without self-pity or sentimentality, often suspending his voice in lattices of delicate picking. But the members of Calexico transformed arrangements that were quiet on Iron & Wine's albums. "On Your Wings," which prays, "God, every road takes us further from home," had an eerie electric drone glowing within it, while Calexico's instruments made "Woman King" even more of a hovering incantation. The songs added heft without losing their mystery.
Calexico's songwriting hasn't been as consistently profound as Mr. Beam's. The band sometimes settles into being simply a border-hopping party outfit. But it chose its brief set well: older songs like "Crystal Frontier" (about exploitation and sorrow at the Mexican border) and new ones like "All Systems Red" expanded from a few notes plucked on Joey Burns's guitar to full-band crescendos that balanced the laughter of horns with the wide-open spaces of sustained accordions and steel guitar. Later, when the full band joined Mr. Beam, their version of the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" sent desert winds swirling within the Velvet's stately drone. Iron & Wine and Calexico don't need each other, but their collaboration opens up new possibilities.
Their guest was Salvador Duran, a Mexican musician who is probably unique. He sings in a dynamic baritone, strums vigorous and complex flamenco-style guitar and, at the same time, stamps fierce cross-rhythms with his boot heels; when not singing, he also plays harmonica, whistles or clucks percussive sounds. Singing ardent love songs in Spanish, he added volatile passion, not to mention novelty, to a pensive lineup.