Caption: David Eugene Edwards has a growling voice with which he sometimes draws out yelping (picture by Alex Vanhee)

Between 1995 and 2001 Sixteen Horsepower has released three studio albums, one live album and one EP and therefore some band members thought it was time for a break. Pivotal singer David Eugene Edwards did not have anything else to do and ideas kept bubbling up. Hence he recorded a solo-album, released recently under the pseudonym Woven Hand. In the autumn of last year Edwards and only one accompanist played at the Crossing Border festival, but during this tour Woven Hand is a quartet. Thence the music live is closer to that of Sixteen Horsepower, that was evident Saturday night at the Brussels Botanique, although generally speaking Woven Hand sound calmer.

But both do have that somewhat sinister atmosphere in common, as a result of Edwards' preference for biblical images, with which he decorates his stories about guilt, sin and damnation. And of course his characteristic growling voice with which he sometimes draws out high-pitched, almost yelping. The band played nearly all the songs of the CD and because of the quartet's musical options they sounded richer than on the album. The moving 'Wooden Brother' sounded very elegiac thanks to Paul Fonfara's cello, whereas the driven 'The Good Hand' was a manic cry of distress of someone who is beyond help. The splendid cover of 'Ain't No Sunshine' (Bill Withers) started very slow and sorrowful, but ended like a hellhound's cry.

Woven Hand delivered a dark mixture of country, hillbilly and folk, but also ventured in the direction of rock, like in (the unreleased song) 'When I Come Back' or 'Your Russia' during which drummer Ordy Garrison made his drums thunder and shake. After the last-mentioned song the man jumped upright, for he thought the concert was over. But because the audience reacted so enthusiastic Edwards decided to join the planned encores and the concert. From the Sixteen Horsepower-songbook the foursome picked 'Golden Rope' and the most remarkable moment of the night followed during the traditional 'Down In The Forest', when Edwards, holding his guitar over his head, almost chanted the line Jesus above everything. He perhaps is the only person on earth who can do that without it being ridiculous. And that is because his biblically inspired music has nothing to do with unctuous Christian rock but everything with dark, wrathful southern gothic from the land of Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.

As an encore Edwards played two more songs solo. The audience wanted more, kept shouting and calling for several minutes, but Edwards decided it had been enough. If we have to pick one of the many highlights, it surely has to be 'Ain't No Sunshine', a song that proved that besides a partial and a complete eclipse of the sun, there also is a final solar eclipse. "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone", sounded dangerous from Edwards' mouth, a look in his eyes midway between madness and despair, not as a conclusion but as a warning of impending perils.

Review Who: Woven Hand
Where and when: Botanique, Brussels, 27 April 2002
Our opinion: A beautiful concert that sometimes pierced you to the very marrow and sometimes was very moving.