Sixteen Horsepower – Folklore
There’s a precarious line between high lonesome and high drama, and Sixteen Horsepower certainly topple over into the latter. Critics have frequently attributed some dark Appalachian influence to the group’s sound, but in truth their music is more cosmopolitan than mountain. This is high theater, and Folklore evokes London more than any dark holler, especially on the drone-heavy “Blessed Persistence” or the hypnotic “Beyond The Pale” (which calls to mind the UK trip-hop of Tricky as much as anything). If this is dark-mountain fare, then it’s most suitable for an Appalachian-themed nightclub of a hip, urban ilk.
To Sixteen Horsepower’s credit, the group has never pretended to be anything but dramatists, and leader David Eugene Edwards has consistently and shamelessly plumbed the depths of the Old Testament for its fire-and-brimstone histrionics rather than its earthbound salvation. Nevertheless, Folkore succeeds most fully on starker tracks such as the album opener, “Hutterite Mile”, which stirringly builds upon Edwards’ intimate vocals and simple acoustic picking. By contrast, the bombast of other songs seems contrived. And with most of the album delivered at such a foreboding fever pitch, the sentiments become less convincing after a while.
A punctuation of rollicking energy such as the traditional mountain number “Single Girl” (which finds Edwards even offering a few carefree yelps) is well-earned relief. Meanwhile, the group’s gut-wrenching rendering of Hank Williams’ “Alone And Forsaken” would probably be more affecting if it weren’t cast into the melancholy Horse Latitudes among so many tracks of similar tone. In a post-O Brother world, where a good portion of America has now had their knees set a-trembling by Ralph Stanley, it may be difficult for 16HP’s incendiary gospel to gain a foothold.