WOVEN HAND

With David Eugene Edwards’ gothabilly band 16 Horsepower on sabbatical, he recorded a solo album in 2001 under the name Woven Hand. While this album has some of the same drone-and-doom feel of the 16 Horsepower albums, Edwards also emphasizes acoustic instrumentation in the form of a banjola, mandolin, pump organ, piano and guitar. The lyrics are deeply religious and poetic, but not in the sort of way his grandfather’s Nazarene congregation sang. These are dark emotions, rather raw, and fully acknowledge the depravity in all humanity in a starkly black and white manner.

While this is mostly a solo project, Edwards invites 16 Horsepower guitarist Steve Taylor and Lilium keyboardist Daniel McMahon into the studio for several tracks. This lineup would debut live in Edwards’ hometown of Denver in the winter of 2001, followed by a brief European tour and an early 2002 release of the album in Germany and France. The album was released the following year in the United States.

Despite the dark acknowledgements of a creator and of humanity’s destitute nature, this album is a fascinating musical experience. The grunge-like mumbling vocals and drone of both electronic and acoustic instruments set a menacing tone, while Edwards manages to interject some creative musical influences in the form of Appalachian and Eastern European folk, an almost neo-prog tempo, and exquisitely sparse acoustic strings.

Lyrically Edwards is probably best compared to some of the very early compositions of former Kansas and current Proto-Kaw composer Kerry Livgren. While Edwards’ music and lyrics are much darker than most of Livgren’s work and his arrangements are much less bombastic, Kerry’s very early compositions that found their way onto the 2002 Early Recordings of Kansas compilation have the same vein of poetically serious contemplation as many of these tracks.

There is a strong feeling of winding dirt roads, dilapidated farmhouses, and of plain old folk lethargically going about the business of living their way toward death in this music. Edwards has been on a traveling musical adventure since his early teens more than twenty years ago, and the lines of rode-hard wisdom and experience show in both his face and his voice. This is not music for the timid of soul.

Tracks like “Blue Pail Fever” and “Wooden Brother” mix blues and country guitar with hillbilly banjola picking and drone to create a captivating mood that is quite soul-piercing. Other tracks like “Story and Pictures” and “Last Fist” are more story-telling, very stark and centered on banjola, mandolin and acoustic guitar strumming. Always the struggle of skyward vision amid a world viewed as damned comes through as strong and almost suffocating. There’s a certain tint of Dylan in the approach here, but while Dylan embraced the world he lived in with all its foibles, Edwards takes more of a detached view as an observer rather than partaker. Either way, you can’t walk down a dirt road without becoming soiled.

The short rendition of Bill Withers’ R&B classic “Ain’t no Sunshine” is the standout track here, mostly because it is the only cover tune and also the only track whose lyrics focus on worldly rather than heavenly concepts. This is a short version – Edwards would expand it greatly with a lengthy version on his 2003 ‘Blush’ CD under the co-title “Animalitos”.

I’m reminded of an old Vonnegut short story about a man who lives a pristine and straight-laced life during the day, but is found at night playing torrid blues tunes on piano at a brothel. That’s the impression Edwards gives off with this album. This is a fascinating musical recording for fans of American folk music (Johnny Cash fans will love it). Four stars for me and highly recommended on its own merits, although this is a sound that will not likely appeal to prog purists. No matter.

peace