16 Horsepower - Styles and Themes

Styles and Themes

It has always been difficult to describe the band's music in simple terms as it borrowed just as heavily from folk music, country, bluegrass, and traditionals as it did from rock music. 16 Horsepower and Edwards' later project Woven Hand were described by one critic as "incendiary gospel, hallowed folk and mordant tones infused with a high, dark theatricality worthy of Nick Cave."

Edwards' grandfather was a Nazarene preacher and young Edwards often went along as his elder preached the gospel to various peoples. This experience coloured his approach to songwriting as well as the instrumentation employed to develop the band's unique sound. On several tracks over the course of the band's career, Edwards evoked decisive Christian imagery, particularly that of the redemptive capacity of Jesus Christ.

16 Horsepower, especially in their early days, saw themselves first and foremost as a rock band. David Eugene Edwards, however, had an interest in all things from past times, including musical instruments. One instrument that was paramount during the nascent days of 16 Horsepower was the Chemnitzer concertina. It was erroneously credited as a bandoneon (a closely related instrument) on Sackcloth 'n' Ashes. The antique instrument used on the early tours and recordings was falling apart and quite cumbersome to tour with; some time before the sessions for Low Estate, it was replaced with the more modern American-made Patek brand instrument.

Read more about this topic:  16 Horsepower

Famous quotes containing the words styles and, styles and/or themes:

    Can we love our children when they are homely, awkward, unkempt, flaunting the styles and friendships we don’t approve of, when they fail to be the best, the brightest, the most accomplished at school or even at home? Can we be there when their world has fallen apart and only we can restore their faith and confidence in life?
    Neil Kurshan (20th century)

    ... it is use, and use alone, which leads one of us, tolerably trained to recognize any criterion of grace or any sense of the fitness of things, to tolerate ... the styles of dress to which we are more or less conforming every day of our lives. Fifty years hence they will seem to us as uncultivated as the nose-rings of the Hottentot seem today.
    Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)

    In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.
    Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)