Colorado's Sixteen Horsepower attacked the sonic icons of America's rural traditions (whether Louisiana's zydeco or Kentucky's bluegrass) from the vantage point of California's "acid" folk-rock; and the painstakingly orchestrated elegies of Low Estate (1997) shifted the focus towards David Eugene Edwards' noble empathy.
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Nel panorama del roots-rock, inflazionato di ibridi e incroci d'ogni sorta,
desta subito tentazione il tentativo dei Sixteen Horsepower,
ragazzotti del Midwest il cui pedigree parla
di bayou della Louisiana e di montagne del Colorado. Strimpellano alla
maniera dei gruppi piu` "acidi" del folkrock, ma sempre ammiccando alle
icone sonore delle tradizioni rurali, in gran parte per merito di tale
David Eugene Edwards (languidi accordi di steel, frenetico picking di banjo,
due note sul bandoneon), e intonano ballate dall'animo grande, che fanno pensare
alla condizione umana e alle disgrazie dei piu`. Una musica sincera, grande,
che a tratti richiama immagini del far west e a tratti fa meditare sul
futuro dell'umanita`. Ad accompagnare l'eroe sono il batterista francese
Jean-Yves Tola, laureato in jazz, e il bassista Keven Soll.
Il primo omonimo EP del 1995 (per la Ricochet), soprattutto
South Pennsylvania Waltz e
Straight-Mouth Stomp, mise in luce una buona disposizione per il country e
il blues piu` arcani, nonche' per la strumentazione piu` arcaica.
Sackcloth & Ashes (A&M, 1996) fece ben di piu`, lanciando Edwards
fra i grandi cantori del tormentato mondo dei vinti e dei dimenticati.
Lo stile intenso e compassato di piccole grandi meditazioni sul destino come
See What I Saw e Scrawled In Sap fa leva sul lamento acuto del cantante e
sul confabulare nervoso della chitarra. Piu` che canzoni sono gridi di dolore
collettivi, preghiere e anatemi di comunita` primitive per le quali il futuro
non esiste da tempo immemore. Il cupo melodramma Prison Shoe Romp rappresenta
forse il punto di massima depressione (lirica e sonora) del disco.
L'effetto e` ancor piu` commovente quando l'elegia piu` struggente si
accompagna a un'incalzante e sgangherata figura di valzer o polka alla
fisarmonica, come in Harm's Way e American Wheeze.
E diventa addirittura devastante quando, in Black Soul Choir e
Heel On The Shovel, su quelle tetre rovine di assoluta disperazione, mentre
Edwards strilla con fervore da predicatore, il banjo lancia un galoppante
country & western.
Al crescere della tensione cresce anche il senso di macabro, la puzza di
putrefazione, l'ombra immane della morte.
L'alternanza di ritmi lenti e ritmi veloci giova alla dinamica del disco,
conferendo un'aura epica al Calvario del redentore Edwards.
Edwards scrive liriche invasate degne di Nick Cave e le canta con lo spirito di
un Jeffrey Lee Pierce (Gun Club) che avesse gettato il saio del punk e indossato
una tuta da contadino degli Appalacchi. La sua opera e` un unico colossale
requiem.
David Eugene Edwards torna con
Low Estate (A & M, 1997), un'altra raccolta di
elegie rurali, questa volta affiancato da un Jeffrey Paul che si alterna a
violino, chitarra e organo. Anche quest'album puo` essere considerato un
concept. Tutte le canzoni sono impostate sui toni dello spiritual piu` macabro,
da Brimstone Rock, una specie di blues che vibra sulle corde di un banjo e
s'innalza furioso sui riff delle chitarre, a Golden Rope, il pianto piu`
tetro che coagula miracolosamente in un valzer maestoso.
Le orchestrazioni di queste tragedie morali sono magistrali.
Il combo scende all'inferno per la marcia funerea di Low Estate, trafitta
dai lamenti di organo, violino, fisarmonica, xilofono e pianoforte.
La voce di Edwards declama solenne For Heaven's Sake, incurante dei
taglienti fuzztone e feedback di chitarra e rincorsa dal galoppo della sezione
ritmica.
La melodia di Phyllis Ruth non esiste, ma gli strumenti si inseriscono uno
alla volta e il muro di accordi che costruiscono vale piu` di un ritornello.
La tensione e` sempre al massimo, grazie all'accorato crooning del leader e
a una suspence calcolata nei minimi dettagli.
Brani come Dead Run e
vivono soprattutto del baritono enfatico di Edwards, a due passi dal Cave
piu` invasato.
Pure Clob Road si spinge persino oltre, con un delirio senza pause su un
concitato magma di fisarmoniche.
A scuotere l'album dall'abulia sono un paio di intermezzi briosi, la
scalmanata quadriglia di My Narrow Mind, il caracollante country & western di
Ditch Digger e la comica canzonaccia di Hang My Teeth On Your Door,
eseguiti da un gruppo di ubriachi del saloon. Ma anche questi brani piu`
tradizionali violano la tradizione in innumerevoli modi. Tutto cio` che conta
viene eseguito sopra le righe o fra le righe. Non c'e` nulla di letterale
in questa musica.
Edwards e` un po' il Nick Cave del country-rock americano, un predicatore
invasato alla disperata ricerca della redenzione. L'operazione che compie
sul blues e sul country ricorda quella dei Gun Club, ma senza l'enfasi
punk-rock.
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The music on
Secret South (Glitterhouse, 2000 - Alternative Tentacles, 2009)
is so old-fashioned that sometimes
(Praying Arm Lane, Straw Foot)
it feels like they are playing covers
(and in a couple of cases they are).
But what they lack in style, they may be gaining in emotional depth:
the stately, martial as well as neurotic
Clogger
(worthy of Stan Ridgway and
Warren Zevon),
the litany Silver Saddle (that blends Spanish melody and Indian droning),
and the ballads
(the piano-based Burning Bush,
the vibrant Splinters)
are impregnated with the fatal tone of noir cinema.
The drawback of the album is that it is a bit too pensive and austere
for its own sake.
Hoarse (Checkered Past, 2001) is a live album.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da
Claudia Parma
Secret South (Glitterhouse, 2000) ha così il sapore d’altri tempi che alle volte (Praying
Arm Lane, Straw Foot) sembra si tratti di covers (ed in un paio di
casi la sensazione è giusta). Ma ciò che si perde in stile, probabilmente lo si
guadagna nella profondità delle emozioni: la magnifica Clogger, marziale
quanto nevrotica (degna di Stan Ridgway e Warren Zevon), la litania di Silver
Saddle (che unisce melodia spagnoleggiante e mantra della tradizione
indiana), e le ballate (il piano di Burning Bush e l’esuberante Splinters)
sono pregne delle atmosfere cupe del cinema noir. Forse l’album risente un po’
troppo di accezioni oscure ed austere.
Hoarse (Checkered Past, 2001) è un album registrato dal vivo.
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Woven Hand (Glitterhouse, 2002) debuted David-Eugene Edwards' alter ego.
The songs composed a haunting journey through the lands of
John Cale
and
Nick Cave
that easily dwarfed the Sixteen Horsepower's recent album.
My Russia sounds like a bluesy version of Leonard Cohen's spectral odes.
The emotional core of the project lies in the breezy folkish of Wooden Brother,
in the emphatic The Good Hand,
the agonizing Story and Pictures,
down to
the introverted Pail Blue Fever and
the claustrophobic Your Russia.
Edwards excels at crafting disturbing atmospheres.
Musically, the most lively ideas are to be found in the locomotive-boogie of
Glass Eye and the Celtic-tinged Arrow Head.
Blush Music (Glitterhouse, 2003), a theater piece, was more avantgarde.
Consider The Birds (Soundsfamilyre, 2004) continued Woven Hand's
dark journey into the psyche but with mixed results.
Sparrow Falls and The Speaking Hands are
emphatic for the sake of being emphatic, and end up
sounding a bit verbose, but
the slow piano pace and guitar reverbs of
Bleary Eyed Duty evoke voodoo rituals, while Edwards sings in a shamanic
register a` la Doors's Jim Morrison.
The solemn melody of Oil On Panel strives to achieve an epic dimension,
but it is the multi-layered rhythm of To Make A Ring that creates the
most powerful atmosphere, and it is the surreal and underdeveloped
Tin Finger that captures the imagination, followed by the spartan
and anemic closer Into The Piano for pianola, found voices and little more.
The feeling is that Edwards tried a bit too hard to craft songs based on
the sound without adequate melodies or arrangements.
Sixteen Horsepower's Folklore (JetSet, 2002)
is chamber music for an existential thriller.
The playing is impeccable and the arrangements are tasteful.
Unfortunately, it contains mostly covers.
Lilium, i.e. bassist Pascal Humbert, released the all-instrumental album
Transmission Of All The Goodbyes (Glitterhouse, 2000 - Smooch, 2005), that collects
home recordings of the previous decade and introduces an evocative and
psychedelic folk sound in the vein of Souled American and Calexico;
and especially Short Stories (Twist & Shout, 2003 - Smooch, 2005), a group-oriented effort (this time fronted by a vocalist, the raspy Kal Calhoone) that used the same kind of
gloomy ambience (Calexico,
Black Heart Procession) to pen intense existential ballads.
Woven Hand, aka David Edwards, achieved a tragic synthesis of sorts of all its
influences on Mosaic (Sounds Familyre, 2006), another bleak fresco of
the contemporary world highlighted by a calm mastery of the folk tradition
and by a tormented brand of existential mysticism.
Edwards work his way through magic/gothic atmospheres with terrifying
elegance:
Winter Shaker sets his
Nick Cave-esque declamation in a
field of eerie electronica and exotic dance;
Elktooth drops his damned lament into a percussive inferno;
Little Raven mixes a naive carillon and a psychedelic shamanic
invocation;
and
the six-minute Slota Prow - Full Armour abandons any pretense of song
and sets in motion a suspenseful chamber drama that towards the end segues
into a flute-driven hard-rocking voodoo dance (Full Armour).
At the same time Edwards' "scenic" skills are at their best.
The solemn threnody Swedish Purse
contrasts an undulating church organ and a tinkling mandolin, i.e.
the somber ambience of a monastery and the lively spirit of a folk dance,
and ends up sounding like a male version of
Nico.
Twig is the soundtrack for a Freudian nightmare, a condensed and
twisted version of the Doors's The End.
while in the poignant elegies Whistling Girl and Truly Golden
he sounds like a colloquial
version of Van Morrison or
Bruce Springsteen.
The brief instrumental Bible And Bird blends the spiritual element of
gospel music and the populist element of country music, and perhaps best
represents his philosophical viewpoint.
The pathos of Edwards' odyssey peaks with the driving
Bob Dylan-esque apocalypse of Dirty Blue,
that incorporates Slavic dance and anthemic singalong.
Edwards never misses a step and rarely uses more instruments than needed.
Edwards' booming croon had acquired the apocalyptic quality of the gospel preachers of the Far West
on Ten Stones (Sounds Familyre, 2008).
Generally speaking, the album displays a more
aggressive stance, starting with
the whipping guitar riffs of The Beautiful Axe.
The album maintains an emotional and sonic core centered around
the pounding and dissonant boogie White Knuckle Grip and
the frenzied madcap hoedown Kicking Bird.
Cohawkin Road embodies much of the spirit of Wovenhand's music, but
it is one of the exceptions to the rule, a cross between
Ennio Morricone's atmospheric soundtracks
and Bruce Springsteen's aching meditations.
Another "soft" moment comes with the stately psychedelic chant
His Loyal Love.
On the other hand, poignant songs like Kingdom Of Ice,
Horsetail and Not One Stone
do not retain the spontaneous horror of Mosaic
Instead they try to involve and engage by piling up hard and loud sounds.
In other words, it sounded like the continuation of Consider The Birds.
The Threshingfloor (Sounds Familyre, 2010) was perhaps
Wovenhand's most eclectic album, with songs ranging from the
poignant and forceful The Threshingfloor to the
gloomy Raise Her Hands, from the
touching acoustic ballad Singing Grass,
to the garage anthem Denver City.
All the lyrics of all Wovenhand records yet were collected in the 110-page book "Black of the Ink", illustrated by David Eugene Edwards.
Edwards' vocal register continued to morph from the tone of the
manic preachers to the tone of the angst-ridden rockabilly singer.
The Laughing Stalk (2012), produced by Alexander Hacke (Einsturzende Neubauten) boasts
an eerie and propulsive sound, thanks mainly to Ordy Garrison's tribal drumming.
Hence the U2-esque bombast In the Temple and
Chuck French imitating Neil Young's thundering guitar riffs in King O King, with As Wool borderin on pop-metal.
But there is also a lot of doom and gloom.
Long Horn echoes the moody punk-pop of Soul Asylum and the gothic punk-rock of Gun Club, while the haunting
The Laughing Stalk and Maize would have been fashionable during the
dark-punk of the 1980s (Joy Division's generation) and
Glistening Black even mimics the
Sisters Of Mercy.
The religious lyrics are the price to pay for listening to some classy stylish
jamming.
Refractory Obdurate (Deathwish, 2014), that adds
Neil Keener's heavy-metal bass lines to an already granitic combo,
tries a bit too hard to sound aggressive, with echoes of
Nick Cave's psychodrama's
in songs like Masonic Youth;
and the distorted vocals in songs like
The Refractory end up evoking Jethro Tull's Aqualung.
The garage rave-up of Field of Hedon is a lone exception of truly ferocious playing. The energy in fact collapses in the
synth-tinged Salome and in the closing
gothic/exotic dirge El-bow.
There is little to salvage on Star Treatment (2016), a rather lazy
repetition of their most common styles and themes, from echoes of
the most propulsive Nick Cave sermons (Come Brave) to
echoes of U2 (All Your Waves).
The waltzing elegy Golden Blossom and the closing anthem Low Twelve are the melodic peaks;
but, again, the highlight is a psychobilly, The Hired Hand, the rare
shock of adrenaline within a sleepy album.
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