Secret South

Artist: 16 Horsepower
Label: Razor & Tie
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 793018285728
EAN: 0793018285728
ASIN: B00004WJCL

Release Date: 2000-09-12

Secret South

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Alt-Country & Americana

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Tracks:

Clogger
Wayfaring Stranger
Cinder Alley
Burning Bush
Poor Mouth
Silver Saddie
Praying Arm Lane
Splinters
Just Like Birds
Nobody 'Cept You
Straw Foot

Similar Items:

Low Estate
Folklore
16 Horsepower
Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
Olden

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The label has changed (Sixteen Horsepower's first two albums, Sackcloth 'n' Ashes and Low Estate appeared on A&M), but, thankfully, little else has. Sixteen Horsepower's palette is still exclusively composed of banjos and accordions, gothic portent and religious foreboding. They still sound like William Faulkner's prose rendered as music, like they belong less in modern music venues and more on a Civil War battlefield, perhaps struggling to be heard through the lifting smoke and screams of the wounded at Antietam. Singer and lyricist David Eugene Edwards continues to straddle the divide between country singer and medicine-show evangelist. In an age when country music has been hijacked by the gormless drones of corporate Nashville and the irony-straitjacketed art students who populate too many alt-country groups, he is a rare and precious reminder of a prior time when country was defined by the holy furies of the Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams. "Burning Bush" and "Praying Arm Lane" might even be the two best things he's written, and the exuberant cover of Bob Dylan's "'Cept You" is surely definitive. Secret South is Sixteen Horsepower's finest hour. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews:

Buy One if You Can Find One.......2007-05-02

This is the best of the 16 Horsepower CDs, and appears, sadly, to be out of print. Grab a copy of this while you still can. This is "Christian" music the way it should be; perhaps the way it used to be in the old-time hymns when life wasn't always so comfortable and death was an everyday reality. Mortality, the human struggle with sin, and hope for a future with God are the themes here. Although 16 Horsepower has broken up, if you enjoy this sound (Country-Goth?), make sure to check out Woven Hand, David Eugene Edwards' current project.

Altered Sound - Menacing As Ever.......2006-10-15

"Secret South" marks 16 HP's third release, and with improved instrumentation and a richer texture it is superior to the previous works, although their most recent work "Folklore" is their best release to date.

For those new to the band, 16 HP play a dark and brooding style of country music lead by David Eugene Edwards, not in the hillbilly banjo style, but incorporating a sophisticated rock angle into `darkened' country atmospheres. For those fans who have not heard "Secret South" it is similar in style to "Low Estate" but has a more confrontational style with more emphasis on guitars, but retaining the gloomy lyrics touching on religion and man's downfall.

The inclusion of an extra guitarist is evident straight away with the booming opener Clogger, one of 16 HP's most overtly aggressive numbers, really gets the album into motion quickly. The rest of the album is decidedly less aggressive, and more akin to the 16 HP sound with dark soundscapes and menacing vocals from Edwards. Examples of this includes the powerful Cinder Alley with its choral climaxes, the guitar explosions amongst the reserved Poor Mouth and the lovely Dylan cover Nobody Cept You which makes for a rare glimpse of sunshine.

This is an excellent 16 HP release which introduces a slightly altered sound, but retains those moments of melancholy and atmosphere that will keep fans pleased.

doesnt get any better than this.......2006-04-21

written with strong spirituallity! A masterpiece of masterpiece's. 16 hp will be one of those bands that will be discovered by the mainstream (fine) artworld years from now. they bring to us a fossil of the past that sheds light on where we have been and where we are going now and forever more.

Streamlined.......2004-10-28

I stumbled upon the band quite by accident about four years ago. it was late one night and I was coming back from I someplace I can't remember when "Clogger" came on the radio of a local college station. I liked the song a great deal and heard "Heel on the Shovel" I think a few days later, but couldn't remember the band's name. Several years later I did, and I have been enthralled with the music ever since. I'm not a country fan and I certainly don't consider myself a christian music fan, but it's not about that. It's about the internal struggle, and Edwards draws you into the thick of it. The music takes you into strange land, and if you're comfortable then you're not listening hard enough. This is a more streamlined album than the previous two, but at the same time it's definitely a worthy successor. It's the same aural landscape, it's just a slightly different approach. This album is more accessible due to tracks like "Clogger", "Cinder Alley", and "Praying Arm Lane". "Strawfoot" and "Wayfaring Stranger" are undeniable foot tappers. None of the songs are poor in my reckoning, but to each his own. I consider this work, like all their material to be very important musically- definitely one of the best buys I've made in a long time.

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