Collecting songs ranging from out-of-print to never-before-released, Around the Well spans Iron and Wine's earliest sessions which yielded the band's 2002 debut The Creek Drank the Cradle through material recorded for 2007's The Shepherd's Dog.

The double-disc collection is broken up into two sections; the first half is an assortment of hushed home recordings, unedited and raw, and the second highlights moments captured in the confines of proper studios with the help of other musicians, friends and engineers. Around the Well brings together hard-to-find covers such as The Flaming Lips' "Waitin' for a Superman" and New Order's "Love Vigilantes," along with one of Iron and Wine's earliest originals, "Sacred Vision