01	Clogger						03:28
	02	Wayfaring Stranger						02:42
	03	Cinder Alley						04:42
	04	Burning Bush						03:59
	05	Poor Mouth						04:39
	06	Silver Saddle						03:12
	07	Praying Arm Lane						03:18
	08	Splinters						05:19
	09	Just Like Birds						03:44
	10	Nobody 'Cept You						03:34
	11	Strawfoot						03:31

Secret South

Release Date: 2000
Formats: CD, LP
Studio/Live: Studio
Label: Razor & Tie Records
Catalogue Number: 7930182857-2
Producers: 16 Horsepower
Guest Musicians/Artists: Asher Edwards (strings); Rebecca Vera (strings); Elin Palmer (strings)
Recorded at the Hamilton Glory Lodge, Blue River, Colorado, USA.
European version: GRCD 480 - Glitterhouse Records (2000)
European version: GRCD 480 - limited edition - Glitterhouse 2000)
(Australian version: CTX 134 CD - Shock Records 2000)


Sixteen Horsepower
Secret South
[Razor and Tie]
Rating: 6.9
I can't tell you how many times I've listened as someone boasted their eclectic tastes and love for "all kinds of music, except country." You've probably heard it, too. Hell, I bet you've gone around saying it yourself. At least until that alt-country hype gave you hope that you weren't necessarily too cool for it, and didn't even have to buy boots or take line-dancing classes to indulge.

Sixteen Horsepower might be ideal country music for those who think themselves too hip for twang, but are too nauseated by Son Volt's slide-guitar fluff. Rather, this band inhabits the same dark corner once occupied by the Geraldine Fibbers, where goth and southern gothic intersect without much to interest purists of either form.

David Eugene Edwards is the son of a preacher man and claims that his lyrics come to him from a higher power. So why isn't his band working that angle for the hard sell, opening for DC Talk or, at the very least, releasing records on Tooth & Nail? Well, for starters, Sixteen Horsepower's music is scarier than any rock n' roll Antichrist you can name. In fact, if there's anything Edwards' holy rants bring to mind, it's an enraged Jules Winnfield reciting Ezekiel 25:17 with his gun's barrel bruising your temple.

Secret South blasts forward with a pump of fuzz bass that immediately puts emphasis on one of Sixteen Horsepower's more distinctive but less obvious defining traits: a massive low end. Bassist Pascal Humbert and the groaning cello occasionally supplied by guest string players suggest the kind of floor-rattling hum more closely associated with Jeeps than the horse-and-buggy that would make the band's ideal touring vehicle. Jean-Yves Tola completes the formative rhythm section, anchoring the surrounding banjo, fiddle, and bandoneon flourishes with galloping beats that not only serve as the foundation for these songs, but also justify the band's moniker-- they provide a relentless engine to Edwards' songs while dragging them away with wild horses.

But at the moment, Sixteen Horsepower are knee-deep in the awkwardness that follows being dropped from a major label. After reaching a plateau of quality with 1998's Low Estate, their doomed contract with A&M Records reached its inevitable conclusion. So now they're not only operating on a smaller label with less promotional reach, but they're also facing an inability to raise the stakes and satisfy the remaining fanbase.

Secret South is a characteristically strong showing, but ultimately, it pales in comparison to its predecessors. The self-produced album retains the band's unique sound, but fails to measure up to the perfect match they found in guitarist John Parish for Low Estate's crisply rustic atmosphere. Even without any of the droning squeezebox ballads that accounted for Low Estate's few weak spots, it somehow lacks the momentum and fury that made that album such an engaging listen.

Whereas Low Estate could be cleanly divided between the upbeat back porch sing-alongs, rambunctious quasi-cowpunk bursts, and the aforementioned dirges, Secret South almost wholly falls into a middle ground with less consistent results. The one mode that is most often in stock here is the slow burn, patiently building but never accelerating past a frustrating mid-tempo. Sometimes it works, as with the teasingly incomplete crescendos of "Poor Mouth." But elsewhere, the formula borders on unbearable, best evidenced by the overwrought wailing of "Cinder Alley."

With Edwards' songwriting in a bit of a slump here, it's not surprising that the album's most enjoyable moments are covers. The traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" suits him as well as any of his originals, with a tinny vocal tone giving the song an honest, folksy rendering. Even better is "Nobody 'Cept You," a gorgeous vow of dedication from Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. And even if the lyrics aren't his, the song still shows Edwards in rare form, laying aside his usual rhetoric for earthly love and naked sincerity.

Ultimately, Secret South shows Sixteen Horsepower nailing their trademarks perhaps too well. With no ironic crutch or overtly modern traits (aside from a vaguely post-grunge sensibility), there's little to save them from niche, or worse, caricature. For the most part, they fend off these concerns with material that demands to be judged on its own merits. But let's face it, "Praying Arm Lane" resembles the theme from "Rawhide" just a little too closely to be taken seriously. Nonetheless, Sixteen Horsepower remains a breath of fresh air for those of us who aren't afraid of a little twang but would rather stay away from Nashville and No Depression.

-Al Shipley


Secret South
Date of Release 2000

Sin, salvation, deliverance, redemption, the Holy Spirit, divine intervention, and prayer; it's all in a day's work for 16 Horsepower singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist David Eugene Edwards. On their third album and first for indie Razor & Tie, the band works within the unique sound they've already defined. With a voice as windswept, barren and generally spooky as the Bates Motel, Edwards unravels 11 mini-sermons with a frightening intensity and emotional edge. When he sings, the ghostly moan that emanates, sounds like he's overcome by forces beyond his control. It's that creepy voice, similar to Michael Been of The Call, along with sparse but powerful instrumentation, and a fire and brimstone lyrical slant that separates 16 Horsepower from the rest of the alt-Americana pack. Seldom have banjos, violins, organ, and bandoneon (an old accordion that helps define the band's unique sound), let alone guitar, piano and, stand-up bass, seemed quite as intimidating and brooding as in the hands of this band. The songs are texturally diverse, but the dark, menacing atmosphere, especially in the stark banjo led disc closing "Straw Foot" and the pounding album opener "Clogger," is pervasive, giving the disc an ominous feel that rarely lets up. Their unadorned version of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" with Edwards singing through what sounds like a paper cup, could have come off an old Library of Congress album. Although they're working within a genre they practically define and this album doesn't push them in any radical new directions, Secret South is another worthy entry into the catalog of a band unafraid to explore the shadowy side of spiritual territory with the passion, fervor, and conviction of a backwoods preacher. - Hal Horowitz

1. Clogger (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 3:28
2. Wayfaring Stranger (Traditional) - 2:42
3. Cinder Alley (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 4:42
4. Burning Bush (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 4:00
5. Poor Mouth (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 4:39
6. Silver Saddle (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 3:12
7. Praying Arm Lane (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 3:18
8. Splinters (Edwards/Sixteen Horsepower) - 5:19
9. Just Like Birds (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 3:44
10. Nobody 'Cept You (Dylan) - 3:34
11. Straw Foot (16 Horsepower/Edwards) - 3:30

Paul Corkett - Mixing
16 Horsepower - Producer
Danny Austin - Mixing Assistant
Bob Ferbrache - Engineer
Hans-Jorg Maucksch - Mastering
Shane Hotle - Assistant
Marty Paul - Production Assistant
David Zimmer - Artwork, Photography

2000 CD Razor & Tie 28572
2000 CD Razor & Tie 82857






Sixteen Horsepower, Secret South (Razor & Tie, 2000)


Sixteen Horsepower's third full-length CD (their first on Razor & Tie) is a brooding, southern-gothic statement of fear and faith. The trio is based in Denver, Colorado, but its music is firmly based in the American South of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. Mostly written by frontman David Eugene Edwards, Sixteen Horsepower's music is a dense melange of country, folk, Calvinist hymns and hard heartland rock.

Edwards, a Christian fundamentalist, has said in interviews that he receives his songs from communion with God and from reading the Bible. His vision of God and creation seems judgmental and apocalyptic, and it makes for music that is arresting, intense and at times disturbing.

Edwards provides emotive vocals and plays guitar and banjo, Kevin Soll plays cello and bass and Jean Yves-Tola plays drums, with some fiddle and accordion provided by guest players. Lyrically and musically, Secret South is multi-layered with metaphor and symbol, and seldom is heard an encouraging word.

The album opens with deep, sludgy bass notes that seem to sing "doom, doom, doom" at the beginning of the uptempo rocker "Clogger." "Come on shake me down, give my conscience a pounding," Edwards pleads as the guitar and fiddle swirl and the drums and bass throb.

The final chord has barely died away when Edwards' banjo sketches out the traditional old-time hymn "Wayfaring Stranger." Edwards' manipulated vocals sound like they come from a century-old cylinder recording, which along with the rest of the production on this track enunciates Edwards' vision of a cold, steel-plated heaven. As though through tightly clenched teeth, he sings of "going over home" with no joy, only a weary anticipation of release from suffering.

Secret South continues through its entire length in much the same vein. Surprisingly, though, it's filled with strangely catchy melodies, memorable lyrics and even a number of musical hooks that can keep you coming back for another listen, almost against your will.

Edwards' lyrics are sprinkled with Biblical allusions, which sometimes shed the only light in Sixteen Horsepower's dark work. Amid the crashing cymbals, soaring distorted guitar feedback, sinewy violin and moaning cello on "Cinder Alley," Edwards sings of "the Beast," and of seeing "the heel of the Father crush the serpent for you."

The plodding "Burning Bush" and mid-tempo "Nobody 'Cept You" are double-sided love songs that sometimes seem to speak to God, sometimes to a human lover. "Nobody," with a truly catchy tune and captivating lyrics, is an affecting confession of devotion to an object of love that seems the only stable thing in a world gone mad.

"Poor Mouth" has a haunting tune that is mated with lyrical and melodic hooks that insinuate themselves into your mind more deeply with each listen. "Splinters" is done in the style of heartland bands like Live, starting with nothing but a strummed guitar playing ominously dark chords, and building to a cacophonous climax; and it all meshes tightly with the lyrics using a tornado as metaphor for the hand of God or fate. "I fell upon that rock./I did not die, just badly broken."

"Just Like Birds" is another love song of sorts, in which the narrator seeks refuge from the judgement falling on the world in the presence of another frightened soul. "Straw Foot"'s banjo and bowed bass sketch a demented square dance of paranoia and redemption. The last line in the last verse on the album is "It ain't no sin, son, to be forgiven."

Secret South is not light listening. This is a powerful record that never strays from its central vision, harrowing though that vision may be.



[Gary Whitehouse]

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