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

The original
I saw 16 Horsepower play many bars & clubs, many times, back in Denver during the 1990s. During that time -- when the songs on this album were perfected in front of consistently-packed, even sold-out, crowds -- the band had no electric guitar, no electric bass, no electric keyboards, etc. They created a twisted-hillbilly, gothic-gospel sound far more intense than the other old-time folk-influenced, alt-country bands popular in Denver at that time. And while those other bands tended to attract young professionals from the mainstream, 16 Horsepower attracted fans from the punk clubs ...and the methadone clinics. 16 Horsepower is not nice old-timey music; it's music for punks & junkies & other people who desire intense, emotional music way outside mainstream pop culture. In my opinion, this is the best studio album from 16 Horsepower, by far. It is worth way more than the $10 for which it sells today.
Brooding lyrics that make you dance...lyrics about God that you'd never hear in church...end-times music with a bit of heaven thrown in...their music is full of beautiful irony and foot-stomping fun.

best 16 HP
I first bought this album after I saw 16 Horsepower open for Morphine back in '96. That was quite a show! I didn't expect 16HP to live up to Morphine, but they proved to be equally as good, if not better. I bought this album at the show and to this day I can't get enough of them.

16HP's music is very difficult to categorize, it has elements of Bluegrass, Blues, Country, Rock, Folk, and Gothic. The themes of the tracks are dark and foreboding and explore religion, sin, redemption, and love. (Although they are in no way a 'Christian' band.) One of the best songs on the album is 'American Wheeze', a melodic and dark piece with an accordion as the primary instrument on the song. Yes, you heard me right, an accordion. Put all of your preconceptions aside about music with accordions and banjos because 16HP uses them like no one else. 16HP is truly a feast for the aural senses. "Sackcloth 'n Ashes" is their first full-length album and one worthy of any music lover's collection, as are their other albums.

Comparisons fail
While I am a metal fan at heart, this album is awesome. Very dark and eerie sounding.
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