Iron & Wine, genre-bending folk, pop artist, will play a free concert on April 13 for OU students on the East Lawn of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Most people have no doubt heard the music of Iron & Wine, the one-man band also known as Sam Beam. His music has been featured for years on the radio and movie and television soundtracks like “Twilight,” “The O.C.,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” The soulful artist also boasts close to 1 million followers on Facebook who can’t get enough.
“We’ve been working on this show since the fall,” said Leesa Allmond, journalism and mass communication senior and one of the show’s organizers. “We’ve put a lot of time and thought in to what students would want and what artist we should bring. Iron & Wine is a unique musician and has a huge following and we think the campus will love his show.”
OU Students could also get a peak at new Iron & Wine songs, as the April concert will happen three days prior to the release of the artist’s new album “Ghost on Ghost,” on April 16. Alternative folk group The Cory Chisel Duo, from Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons, will open the show at 8 p.m.
The concert will be the cap to what organizers are calling a “Must-Stay Weekend,” for OU students. Thousands of students will participate in the annual Big Event community service project during the morning of April 13, that sends OU students all over the metro volunteering their time to clean up local parks, paint community centers and plant trees. This will be followed by OU’s traditional spring Red and White football game at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium where the Sooners will face off against themselves in the annual team scrimmage. Concert organizers felt that this was the perfect weekend to have the show that they expect to draw over 3,000 students.
“We really want to show students that the OU campus is alive seven days a week and they can miss a lot when they leave campus on weekends,” said Patrick Vaughn, film and media studies senior and one of the shows organizers. “That’s why we are calling this the ‘Must-Stay Weekend’ concert. Students will miss three great events if they don’t stick around.”
The show will start at 8 p.m. on the East Lawn of the union near the intersection of Asp Avenue and Felgar Street. The concert has been organized by the combined efforts of the Campus Activities Council, The Union Programming Board and OU Summer Session. Additional support was provided by OU Student Affairs, the Oklahoma Memorial Union, Housing & Food Services, Coca-Cola, The Student Alumni Association, The Army ROTC and the Naval ROTC. For more information, visit upb.ou.edu, cac.ou.edu or summer.ou.edu.
