A music lover arrives at heaven's gate and Peter says: 'Heathen, thou shalt not enter here!' 'But, you should have given me some sign!' came the reply. 'Shoot!' Peter cries out, 'And what about 16hp's music?!'

Anyone listening to 16hp's music will know, sooner or later: this is serious. God or Satan, heaven or hell, there seems to be nothing in between and the choice is yours. David Eugene Edwards sings his lyrics like the salvation of his and all of man's children's very souls depend on it. Listening to this music can not leave you feeling indifferent. 'We're all sinners,' he states, 'me and you alike.' Okay, but he's a sinner who makes beautiful music.

David Eugene Edwards' ancestors were Scottish and Native American, his parents have lived in Arkansas and North Carolina. One of his two grandfathers herded sheep, the other was a preacher who traveled from town to town, building churches and spreading the gospel. After his father's death, David moved in with this grandfather and became fulfilled by the church hymns he heard. His grandfather is now 82 years old and works with the sick and the elderly. Recently, a camera crew from the VPRO music programme "Loladamusica" came to visit him. 'That was a very overpowering experience for him' says David 'He's never gotten into anything like this before, he's not used to people being interested in his person or his past. He found it a nice but somewhat threatening experience.' The fact that his grandson now travels the world, spreading the gospel, should do the old man a power of good. 'He's aware of this and he loves my music, but at the same time he really has no idea what my life is like these days. He has never been to a show of ours, he doesn't do that kind of thing.' David's mom however, comes to every show that's not too far from her hometown, provided she doesn't have to babysit so David's wife can go. 'My mother has a deep understanding of what my songs are all about. Not only my songs for that matter, she also loves Bob Dylan and she has taken his music to heart.'

In spite of the inherent Christian message, David finds it hard to talk about his lyrics. 'I'd like to explain them to people, but at the same time I realize that not everything can be told. Songs often posess a mysterious power that can't easily be translated to everyday language.' Secret South is his most personal album so far. 'The album's title spontaneously came to me and it seemed to reflect the contents very well. The songs are full of secrets.' Although he resides in Denver, Colorado, David feels he's a real Southerner. 'The South has my undivided interest,' he says 'it's where my family roots lie, and I've read everything there is to read about the history of the South. The civil war plays a central role in this history. Above all this was a spiritual war, in which brother fought brother and died for what they believed in. Some of Colorado's population were on the Union's side but at the same time felt a strong commitment to the Confederation.' Still, the best music is made in the South, mostly by nameless people who barely make enough to survive. 'All Southern music, whether black or white, has African roots' is David's conviction, 'that's what makes it so special. Even the landscapes there have an untouchable, mysterious atmosphere to them. The people seem very friendly and open at first glance, but when you get to know them you'll learn that they won't reveal much of their true selves. It's the way they've been raised.'

Jean-Yves Tola (drums) grew up near Paris, France, and since his early youth he has been fascinated by America. 'My father was working for an American company and I read a lot of books about cowboys and Indians. I identified with the latter people. I had three musicians for brothers, so I got to know Neil Young and Bob Dylan's music at an early age. When I came to America for the first time, I knew there was a great chance I would stay.' Jean-Yves wasn't alone, his friends from the band Passion Fodder (formerly with Orchestre Rouge) came with him and together they moved to Los Angeles. There he met David Eugene Edwards, with whom he developed a friendship on the basis of many musical favorites they shared. 'We worked for the same boss. He performed with the Denver Gentlemen, the band I later joined as a drummer. Neither of us was very happy in that band, which led to us forming 16 Horsepower, a trio with Passion Fodder's bass player Pascal Humbert, in 1992.' Violinist and guitarist Jeffrey Paul Norlander joined them to make the band a quartet, but he's no longer with them. 'David and I are highly focused. We like to work hard and expect the same amount of commitment from the others. Sometimes, this causes problems.' The latest to join the band is Steve Taylor form New Orleans, who has already worked with 16hp before, then a technician. 'He played a couple of times as a guest musician, and now he's a full time band member on guitar and keyboards.' Since working on Low Estate, Jean-Yves has been more actively participating in composing the songs, and they continued to work like this on Secret South. 'We're always very relaxed around each other. There's no war of ego's between me and David.' The band themselves produced Secret South in absolute freedom, since A&M dropped them. In the USA, Secret South is distributed by Razor & Tie, in Europe 16 Horsepower is on Glitterhouse Records.

Although the band has their own site on the internet (http://listen.to/16horsepower) to which they sometimes contribute, David isn't very keen on this new medium. He doesn't even own a computer. Does he, like some 21st century Luddite, see all these modern machines as the devil's inventions? 'It's not that bad, but I also don't like TV. Computers and TV resemble each other. I think good things can be done with them, but they add more confusion and distraction to our existence. I also don't like conversations over the telephone.' David makes the impression he'd rather be living in the past, but this is not the case. David: 'Although I'm interested in the past, I live in the present. It's important to know where you're from and what happened there before you were born. I tend to want to get to the very bottom of certain things. That way, I try to find out why people are the way they are.' The past provides him with enough to write about, which is evident on Secret South. Nine original songs and two covers: the traditional "Wayfaring stranger" and the obscure Dylan song "Nobody 'cept you". Guest musicians on the album are Asher Edwards, who plays violin on "Just like Birds", a song daddy David dedicated to her, Cellist Rebecca Vera and multi-instrumentalist Elin Palmer. She was Asher's violin teacher, and she will probably join the band on their upcoming European tour.

David: 'All songs on Secret South are brand new, whereas the other albums contained older songs.' David already performed three of the album's songs (Burning bush, Straw Foot and Wayfaring Stranger) on last year's Crossing Border Festival. On Secret South, the piano and organ play a more prominent role, whereas the slide guitar is hardly used at all. We have never heard a song like "Silver saddle" before. 'We have been trying to vary our style and develop a new sound, a sound we wanted to hear. Jean-Yves has had a much bigger influence composition-wise.'
Clogger, the album's opening song, is a strong and catching piece of music. Pure, steaming 16 Horsepower potion. But what's a clogger, for Heaven's sake? 'To me, that's someone who won't listen to reason' says David 'An inconsiderate loudmouth.' We know the type, but for the most part the lyrics remain far from crystal clear. Like this line: 'Come and sing me down, and give my conscience a pounding'? Down where, and hitting my conscience? David: 'Pounding is a religious term, used in the South. Some congregations bring food for their preacher, a pound of cheese or a pound of meat. Come and sing me down... refers to another common practice in the churches down South; a preacher straying from his subject would often provoke a member of the congregation to stand up and start singing a hymn. The other churchgoers would then join in to make it clear to the preacher that he should get to the point.'