What Billy Bob Thornton needs to do, apart from giving up country singing, is get behind another movie as scary as Sling Blade and implore David Eugene Edwards to have his trio of biblically spooky goth cowpokes, 16 Horsepower, perform the soundtrack. Besides, Edwards has already written a slew of songs Angelina Jolie's ex-main squeeze could adapt into one brilliant screenplay. The band's fourth studio long-player, Folklore, sounds like it's waiting for its own movie. It would be a deliberately paced, Hitchcock-meets-Coen Brothers affair replete with Edwards' usual lyrical themes: God, death, mysterious women that bring on near obsessive delirium, and poetry best left to Edwards' own interpretation. Difference is this time that 16 Hp don't spastically punk out, but do adapt Hungarian and Tuvan (you know Tuva, where they have that cool throat singing) folk tunes. Save for a bluegrassy Carter Family remake, "Single Girl," and the closing mazurka, "La Robe a Parasol" (oui, in French), this is music of brooding sheen and light squinting through pensive darkness. Not only is it a fine companion piece to Edwards' recent Woven Hand solo project, but exactly the kind of album over which Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Lee Hazlewood, and Tom Waits should have coffee. Now, let me find "Thornton" in my Rolodex....
Editors' ratings - Doug 4.5/5, Jason 5/5
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Brian A. SmithFolklore, by its title, would imply that this album is comprised of traditional songs, perhaps with new arrangements, somewhat in the vein of O Brother Where Art Thou? This is partially true - four of the songs contained here are traditional songs, while Hank Williams and the Carter Family are also represented. 16HP also has composed four new tunes with the same sensibilities of their…Opus 2002Reviewed by Chris Brown16 Horsepower is a band branded by the singular vision of David Eugene Edwards. His is a dark, apocalyptic world where the flesh and spirit are locked in constant struggle, where Edwards howls out his fractured visions couched in droning banjos, fiddles, and pounding rhythms. What people often miss when they focus on Edwards, however, is that 16 Horsepower is a band that constantly revises their…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Chris FlierFolklore does create some confusion. Keyboard player and guitarist Steven Taylor has left the band and the remaining three 16 Horsepower members have promptly banned loud guitars from their new album. Only a few weeks after David Eugene Edwards' solo project Woven Hand the fourth album of the 16hp's is released. For Folklore 16 Horsepower has picked four original compositions and six pieces of…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Ken MuellerDavid Eugene Edwards continues to amaze me, and over the years has put together one of the most impressive music catalogs of any artist. The latest release from 16 Horsepower, Folklore, just furthers that idea in my mind. Picking up where he left off with his Woven Hand side-project, Edwards and the gang seem to be headed in a decidedly more acoustic direction. The loud guitars and throbbing bass…Similar sounding releases
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