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How many horses do you need?


Onliest Smeg David

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When it comes to music, 16 is absolutely spot on!

 

16 Horsepower are an American alternative country music group based in Denver, Colorado. Their music often invokes religious imagery dealing with conflict, redemption, punishment, and guilt through David Eugene Edwards's lyrics and the heavy use of traditional bluegrass, gospel, and Appalachian instrumentation cross-bred with rock.

I have been listening to them since their first album swamped my ears in 1996 with it's rural backwoods kitch and edgy off-kilter country rock harboring a smattering of hillbillieness.

David Eugene Edwards and Pascal Humbert formed Horsepower in 1992 in Los Angeles, California, where they had met building movie sets for Roger Corman's Hollywood Studios. Friend, co-worker and trained jazz drummer Jean-Yves Tola joined shortly after. The trio performed as Horsepower before they parted ways with Humbert as Edwards and Tola relocated to Denver, Colorado.

In Edwards's hometown of Denver, the band once again became a trio with the addition of Keven Soll, a luthier and accomplished double bass player. 

Frustrated by misconceptions about the name Horsepower being related to heroin and inspired by a traditional American folk song about sixteen horses pulling the coffin of a beloved to the graveyard, the name was changed to 16 Horsepower.

Acknowledged influences on the band included Joy Division, the Gun Club, Nick Cave and the Birthday Party.

16 Horsepower are among the Denver-based bands credited for laying the foundation for what today has become known as "Gothic Americana".

 

Wovenhand is the subsequent American alternative country band led by former 16 Horsepower front-man David Eugene Edwards. The band began in 2001 as a solo project for Edwards while 16 Horsepower was taking a temporary hiatus. Wovenhand's music combines influences from Southern Gothic music, old-time music, folk music, gospel music, and rock and roll, among other genres and styles of music, a progression from 16 Horsepowers sound. Conceptually and lyrically, Wovenhand reflects Edwards' strong Christian faith.

 

Edwards is married and has two children (his daughter, Asher, plays strings on 16 Horsepower's album Secret South and appears in the videos for the band's songs "Haw" and "Clogger")

 

16 Horsepower....

 

 

 

 

Wovenhand....

 

 

 

 

& they have always covered others songs in their unique style…

 

 

 

(Heart & Soul has always been part of live performances for both band incarnations )

 

 

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