Many artists, from The Band to Nick Cave to Will Palace, have tapped into the myths and imagery of backwoods America, but none more effectively than the Gun Club an idea 16 Horsepower likely holds as gospel. The spirit of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Co. hangs over this eponymous EP like a corn liquor headache, informing everything from singer David Eugene Edwards' quavering timbre to the wraith-like slide guitar of "South Pennsylvania Waltz." The influence is undeniable, but it's not the end of what 16 Horsepower does. The band is at its best when stark creepouts like "Shametown" are prodded along by Edwards' twining banjo or, as on "Straight-Mouth Stomp," his bandoneon squeezebox. While you'd never suppose that anyone involved grew up in a "holler" (in fact, the chorus of "Straight-Mouth Stomp" - "Apples in the summertime/Peaches in the fall" - gets the agricultural order reversed), the EP's emotional intensity makes every one of Edwards' spectral moans ring true. 16 Horsepower is just an early taste of the band; if the live show is any indication, this homebrew mojo should be even more potent on the forthcoming full-length, slated for release on A & M in early February.