WIN THIS CD!New Bluegrass: Sixteen Horsepower's Folklore

Sixteen Horsepower’s song, “Sinnerman,” from the album, Folklore, has a similar blend of talking/chanting/singing like the spoken section of U2’s “Bullet the Blue Sky.” Yet, Sixteen Horsepower (16HP) is part of a new section of the Spectrum: New Bluegrass. There’s the Bluegrass section which covers more traditional bluegrass, but now I am adding other artists to the collection which have a bluegrass/traditional folk foundation but really incorporate rock, country, and other elements. To get extremely technical about it, 16HP can’t be in the Bluegrass section, because they have drums. Bluegrass music traditionally doesn’t have drums.

Yet, one listen to 16HP, and you can hear the influence of the Appalachian Mountains. “Outlaw Song” has acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, string bass; a mournful ballad, sounding like it’s recorded in a holler somewhere. David Eugene Edwards’ voice is ready to crack, ready to ring out from a small shack, ready to shake the coal mining town.

The band originates from Colorado, so there is also a sense of Western mountain towns. Edwards is known for saying that he belongs in the 19th century, but then apparently also doesn’t like it when the band’s music is labeled as folk music which doesn’t give them enough credit for their contemporary sound (see Biography at the 16HP site). This is a hard line to follow, but maybe the New Bluegrass section will speak to both sides.

Edwards notes the Violent Femmes and Nick Cave as major influences, and I can hear both, the Femmes in the driven-acoustic arrangements and some vocals and Cave in the themes and vocals.

However, I hear other comparisons too. Again, there’s U2; “Blessed Persistence” starts with a bass line much like “Van Diemen’s Land.” On “Beyond the Pale,” there’s piano, xylophone, and samples which actually put me in mind of some Electronica I’ve been hearing lately—Rob Smith, Royksopp, Mice Parade, and Brian Eno (back to the U2 connection).

That brings us back to “Sinnerman.” This is a haunting traditional song, like a biblical prophet chasing you from the shadows, showing how you cannot hide from God’s judgment, His piercing eye on your sinfulness. This is a theme on this album—where grace and forgiveness may not always be foremost.

The music is cut from the cloth of American Westward Expansion, farmers and small towns, covered wagons and horses, courting in the apple orchard, carrying a picnic lunch to the church meeting on Sunday. Yet, the music also weaves together the fabric of life as a Christian in the 21st century: fear, trial, sin, struggles, and relying on God for deliverance.

The first person to email me explaining the name of the band was Bruce. He said, "In Sixteen Horsepower's case the name is taken from an old folksong in which an old man has the coffin of his deceased wife pulled up the hill by sixteen jet-black horses. It immediately conveys what Sixteen Horsepower stands for: for tradition, for dark narrative art, for faith." Bruce wins a free copy of the album, Folklore.

Thanks to Jetset Records and Glitterhouse Records for their help.