16 Horsepower
Folklore

THE REVIEW

Black.

Black like the visionary delusions of Joy Division. Or like the ink (never sympathetic) of the late Nick Cave. Or like the covers of certain American recordings steeped in every breath of bleak disillusionment, the kind that comes with age and troubles.

Tradition means something firm, immovable. The 16 Horsemen reinterpret it, and beyond the usual Gun Club and Bad Seeds, there are echoes of Gene Clark and Gram Parsons, but also of Django or Clint Eastwood, in short, that slightly epic and slightly cursed country, soaked with the (barely) holy water of a devilish voice - David Eugene Edwards a beggar who alternates between Jeffrey Lee Pierce and even Mark Hollis - brimming with blues up to his neck. Tradition also means telling stories, and indeed this record is almost a concept due to its homogeneity, full of references that tie together the various stations through which the journey winds. The slave destroyed by fatigue who one morning finds the freedom of a horse ("gray like the sky above") and is forced to flee to the farthest horizons. And then stop, think about the past or the future, and contemplate that there's a god up there, there must be. Or more prosaically, a woman who was once there and now is not, or letting go to the euphoria of a girl dancing around the fire at night, rhythm of banjo and festive violins. But there is no peace, the dreams return and torment, until the end through all the sins.

It would be impossible to fully describe the richness of references, the evocative power of the instruments and arrangements used here, violins, cellos, double basses, banjos in addition to the usual guitars and pianos. The density of the lyrics, often incomprehensible at first glance, is also given by the sources: almost half of the songs are traditional, another good part are often bold reinterpretations (Hank Williams). There's not a piece that stands out above the others, no chart-topping single obviously, here we are like in front of a Guthrie book or an old-school Leone film (Sinnerman). Outlaw Song, Alone and Forsaken, Hutterite Mile shine with a black and painful light, marking the path for the 16 Horsemen who will not turn back from here.

Not for everyone, but certainly written for more people than you might think.