Just getting Better!!!!
These Denver boys have for years been evolving and changing from the off-kiltercountry sound to a more defined and somewhat darker rock sound. Don't get me wrong, there are indeed some foot-stomping tunes on here, but the majority of the songs show the maturity of the band in their writing style. The album opens with the bass heavy "Clogger" that will remind fans of earlier albums, but as you go further into the album the sound definately changes. "Wayfaring Stranger" is sparse with the majority of the music hidden in a drone of sounds. The most powerful song is "Cinder Alley," with itssoft violin introduction, exploding chorus and passionate lyrics. "Burning Bush" focuses on the beautiful vocals of David Eugene Edwards, and the inclusion a new instrument for the band, the piano. "Just Like Birds" features, again, the violin and if you listen closely you can hear David's daughter, Asher, humming the opening melody. One of the treasures of this album is the inclusion of their Bob Dylan cover "Nobody 'Cept You," which they truly make their own. What makes Sixteen Horsepower special is their highly personal lyrics that range from love, to religious struggling and acceptance, to basic life experience. How they blend these with the original sound of old-time instruments and modern rock create a unique listening experience that draws you in and just won't let you go!
Subtlety is an art.
On this, their third full-length studio album, Sixteen Horsepower has proved what their long-time fans have always known: no one else is doing this kind of music quite this well! The musical landscape of Secret South is something akin to the Appalachian woods: deep and complex. There are so many layers here that you will find something new nearly every time you experience these eleven songs. Frontman, David Eugene Edwards, who says he wrote this album at the piano, has set aside many of the instruments that made their sound so unique in the past. What do we have left? One incredible piece of artistry. What may strike loyal fans as something a bit different is the change in mood on this album. There are far fewer pot-boilers here as there were in the past. Sure "Clogger" kick-starts the album with some real fire, but the sustaining 'feel' of the whole project is more of water rising to a rolling boil. "Cinder Alley" and "Splinters" (two of my early favorites here) are great examples. To compare the beginning and ending of the songs you might not have guessed Edwards and co. would 'go there.' These guys, instead of torching gasoline-soaked bonfires like they have in the past, turn up the flame slowly. Soon the songs are well-ablaze. "Strawfoot" is a great example of how you may find yourself listening intently at the subtle beginning but soon discover your toes are tapping.
What I hear here is the sound of a group of musicians who have matured to the point of restraint. They have proven they can rock many times in the past, and with great success! Here the musical artistry is more controlled and, as a result, becomes even more beautiful. The addition of strings has provided a 'lushness' in places that was missing before. Dare I say it, 16hp at times sound elegant!
Lyrically these songs are as gripping and unforgettable as ever. "Praying Arm Lane" and "Poor Mouth" are among the finest pieces David has ever written. Familiar denizens of the dark land where 16hp is wont to inhabit are back for return appearances: Christ, Satan, persevering saints and woe-begone sinners. Of special note here are several references to Narnia (in "Clogger," "Splinters" and "Just Like Birds"). Witness the power of a redeemed imagination in David's tremendous writing. It rarely gets any better than this!
One song I keep going back to is "Nobody 'Cept You," the Dylan cover. This has been a favorite of those who have seen 16hp live, but now we have it for keeps! Thanks, guys! For me Secret South proves right (once again) those of us who consider ourselves 16hp "pushers." We traffic in their music. We even try to get our friends addicted, and sometimes it works! I consider Secret South tremendous ammunition for spreading the fame of my favorite band. Let's just pray they don't stay such a secret much longer.
(Hard-core 16hp fans: make sure you hear the "Clogger Remix" CD. It is much more than a mere remix. It is a phenomenal reworking of the song to a very beautiful and haunting piece that demands repeated listening!)
Too normal for me....
I love Sixteen Horsepower's "Sackcloth and Ashes." I was a little a disappointed by "Secret South"; it sounds almost mainstream. Well, perhaps that's a stretch. The stand-out track is a Bob Dylan cover, "Nobody 'Cept You." If you love 16 Horsepower's other stuff, you'll still like this.
A Southwestern Masterpiece
Secret South is a haunting album that evokes myriad feelings, including passion, beauty, and all you may have about death. It is truly a work of art, on the level of Jeff Buckley's "Grace." Any true music aficianado will be moved by the lyrics and brilliant musicianship. The sound is truly original, with a kind of gothic western flavor. To achieve this sound, the artists use a variety of unique instruments, including the banjo, bandoneon and concertina. Listening to Secret South while driving between Colorado and Taos, New Mexico is one of my favorite trips (I highly recommend it; the scenery is the perfect accompaniment). If you liked O' Brother, Where Art Thou, you will love Secret South.
Sadness
It is sad that this sound has been strictly located w/in Denver for so many years (that is, of course excluding its tremendous success in Europe). Although it is this reviewers opinion that the southern gothic attitude in music developed in Denver, it is also this reviewers opinion that it has not recieved enough attention outside colorado. So if you are a non-Colorado resident buy every 16 Horsepower CD you can and realize why the best musicians in America are Developing in the heart of the midwest. Secret South is truly amazing & if you find you can swallow the South David Eugene Edwards gives you, then check out these other Denver artists & see exactly what I am talking about.
The artists are:
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Munly (who also plays W/the Auto Club)
The Denver Gentlemen (wow)
The Kalamath Brothers
Preacher Boy
Woven Hand (solo project by David Eugene Edwards)
thankyou
(d.)
The label has changed (Sixteen Horsepower's first two albums, Sackcloth 'n' Ashes and Low Estate appeared on A&M), but, thankfully, little else has. Sixteen Horsepower's palette is still exclusively composed of banjos and accordions, gothic portent and religious foreboding. They still sound like William Faulkner's prose rendered as music, like they belong less in modern music venues and more on a Civil War battlefield, perhaps struggling to be heard through the lifting smoke and screams of the wounded at Antietam. Singer and lyricist David Eugene Edwards continues to straddle the divide between country singer and medicine-show evangelist. In an age when country music has been hijacked by the gormless drones of corporate Nashville and the irony-straitjacketed art students who populate too many alt-country groups, he is a rare and precious reminder of a prior time when country was defined by the holy furies of the Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams. "Burning Bush" and "Praying Arm Lane" might even be the two best things he's written, and the exuberant cover of Bob Dylan's "'Cept You" is surely definitive. Secret South is Sixteen Horsepower's finest hour. --Andrew Mueller
