With its use of banjo, accordion, lap steel, and stand-up bass and its songs about creaking pine porches, shallow graves, prison shoes, and big horses, Sixteen Horsepower would seem to be drawing from the same ancient well... more »s of Americana as the Band. The Band, however, handled this tradition from a working-class perspective of Monday morning blues and Saturday night release. By contrast, Sixteen Horsepower takes the leisure-class approach of existentialist angst, bad college poetry, and no release whatsoever. Edwards simply throws evocative phrases together without bothering to make one fit with the other. Such a technique could be called "experimental," but it could also be called "lazy." Drummer Jean-Yves Tola and bassist Keven Soll help Edwards create a spare, agitated, rock & roll string-band sound behind his doom-and-gloom howlings. --Geoffrey Himes« less
With its use of banjo, accordion, lap steel, and stand-up bass and its songs about creaking pine porches, shallow graves, prison shoes, and big horses, Sixteen Horsepower would seem to be drawing from the same ancient wells of Americana as the Band. The Band, however, handled this tradition from a working-class perspective of Monday morning blues and Saturday night release. By contrast, Sixteen Horsepower takes the leisure-class approach of existentialist angst, bad college poetry, and no release whatsoever. Edwards simply throws evocative phrases together without bothering to make one fit with the other. Such a technique could be called "experimental," but it could also be called "lazy." Drummer Jean-Yves Tola and bassist Keven Soll help Edwards create a spare, agitated, rock & roll string-band sound behind his doom-and-gloom howlings. --Geoffrey Himes
"16 Horsepower is shattering all types ofboundries. Musically, they are one of the most original bands to comeout in the 1990s. Lyrically most people aren't willing to touch these themes with such honesty.16 Horsepower's main component is singer & multi-instrumentalist David Eugene Edwards (who also writes the lyrics.) Edwards plays banjo, guitar, accordian, hurdy-gurdy and probably some other stuff. The other members play bass & drums. These songs deal with religious conviction, temptation, wrestling with one's dark side, hope, and basically the torments of a man looking towards heaven but trapped in an earthly body. The creaky, vintage instruments Edwards uses are the perfect vehicle for his message. And with such a wide range of instrumentation the sounds are extremely varied. Everything from knee-slapping bluegrass to dark, jangly guitars to grinding accordian to old-timey country tinged rock music.This is their first full length album. The two since then "Low Estate" (also available in the USA) & "Secret South" ... are even more amazing because extra members have been added and the sound expanded even more."Sackcloth & Ashes" contains the song "Black Soul Choir," which is the one thing even resembling a hit that the group has had. Its an incredible, hard-driving bluegrass-type tune about man's vanity in this world. Pretty intense stuff.Open, honest, longing and intense are the best ways to sum up 16HP, and they are well worth getting into.If you ever have the chance to see them live: RUN don't walk to buy a ticket! They are even better live. END"
Wonderfully Creepy
Richard M. Affleck | Lake Hopatcong, NJ USA | 08/15/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I love the description that another reviewer gave this album: Appalachian Gothic. With it's "roots" instrumentation and off-kilter lyrics, Sackcloth and Ashes is the dark side of "Oh, Brother Whereart Thou", invoking a strange and brooding "South" of hidden hollows and watchful people, a place that would be familiar to William Faulkner, not to mention Mulder and Scully. The music's not religious, not in the church goin' sense, but rather plays with themes of sin and redemption, heaven and hell, good and evil, that are such a part of the American past--and present. If you're open to travelling to a strange place, you could do much worse than Sixteen Horsepower."
Truly Creepy Graveyard Rock
Richard M. Affleck | 05/08/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is some seriously eerie stuff... it has a Christian bent to it (and I'll freely admit, I'm no fan of Christianity - in fact, I'm a black metal freak), but it's so full of the chill of death and so evocative that few forms of music weave a darker atmosphere than Sixteen Horsepower's. All of their albums are must-gets, but "Sackcloth" is the best. This rates up there with Skip James's blues music as music to scare the heck out of yourself with at 3 a.m. in a darkened room. The Appalachian music style blends well with backcountry rock and the darkness of the lyrics becomes deeper and more haunting with every listen. If you're into goth, blues, Type O Negative-type "metal" (although this is anything but metal), or anything else *strange* and have an open mind for things that are more than a bit different, you're gonna have a hard time pryin' this puppy out of your CD player. It's albums like this that make me glad that CD's don't wear out so easily. Very well thought-out - definitely not the typical "flavor of the month" stuff - and the lyrics have literary value, with powerful imagery. This has staying power. Beautiful. Chilling. And it still manages to kick butt. Snag it already..."
Concrete Blonde + Nick Cave = a rather good album
Scott Sweet | Colorado Springs, CO | 02/10/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Sackcloth 'n' Ashes" has the fevered, stream-of-consciousness lyricism of The Birthday Party, and the backwoods appeal of "outlaw" country music. You could film a sequel to "Deliverance," and this would be the soundtrack. It's a great album for college students who are burned out on Dave Matthews and Phish, but aren't quite ready for Swans. There's little humor in the songs, but it's easier to get in the groove when the singer doesn't play it cute. David Eugene Edwards has a wailing urgency perfect for no-tech music. There's an Old Testament anguish in the singing and the guitar, so the image of hardship and minimal education holds up pretty well. Jean-Yves Tola and Edwards have some fun with the drums and banjo. The yearning, moonshine quality of Edwards' voice reminds me of Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano. All the songs are fairly brief, but the mood is set early and just gets deeper. The black-and-white photos and turn-of-the-century typeface cement the vibe.As the editor's review states, the lyrics are more for effect than for narrative cohesion: "Every man is evil yes / An[d] every man a liar / An[d] unashamed with wicked tongues / sing in the black soul choir." Still, it works; backwoods musicians (or pseudo-backwoods; the band is from Colorado) sing and play without post-modern irony. The songs are a way to get through the heat and isolation and waiting for the sheriff to find Viola's body in the marsh."Horse Head" has a jangly guitar sound and swing beat right out of the late fifties. "Harm's Way" sounds like Buckwheat Zydeco doing a They Might Be Giants song. "American Wheeze" fakes us out with a gentle rim-tap beat, then offers a chorus sure to fill the dancefloor. The bouncy beat in several tracks suggests that these guys aren't totally miserable. "Red Neck Reel" is a foot-stompin' hoot. "Prison Shoe Romp" is a chain-gang rocker that would fit on Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting."These songs don't cover a broad territory, but they're effective. Even if Sixteen Horsepower is pushing an image, they back it up with good songs. They got the important part right."
Blisteringly Bluesy Appalachian Goth
Scott Sweet | 07/23/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Did you ever wonder what would happen if you combined the banjo pickin' kid from Deliverance with the gothic howls and haunting lyrics of Bauhaus? Neither did I, but I found out when I first heard 16 Horsepower. The eclectic instrumentation (from electric guitar to cello to hurdy gurdy) and innovative song structures (from ballads to Delta Blues to swamp stomp) are impressive: these guys hold nothing back. Lyrically, pious religious imagery is combined with blasphemous hinting of desire and desecration. The band is from Colorado, but the inspiration seems to come from 19th century back-woods bayou porches and covered wagon treks across badlands and heartlands. 16 HP takes seemingly dichotomous themes and styles and wraps them tightly into a perfect package of what I can only describe as Appalachian Goth. It's unbelievable. It's powerful. And your toes WILL tap."