16 Horsepower's visionary former preacher embarks on possessed but clean rock. Woven Hand, clasped hands. If the singer clasps his hands, he doesn't mean to crack his knuckles, but to pray. Woven Hand is the solo project of the fair-haired tornado, David Eugene Edwards, 16 Horsepower's boss.

With Sackcloth'n'Ashes, the band's first album, we discovered a frightening concentrate of the ancient obsessive fears of America -to put it in a nutshell, Good vs. Evil- shot at point blank with a banjo as old as hillbilly music itself. They gave gigs beautiful as a black mass, pervaded by the Bible, with the Devil grabbing you and fear at your heels. They were the Gun Club or the Violent Femmes of a new generation. As time went by (they already released 4 albums and the 5th is due before the summer), we also discovered that 16hp was a limited band, rather fundamentalist than fundamental. The haunted preacher of redneck gothic, David Eugene Edwards kept telling the same story with the same words and the same fraught fervour -he was singing as if he was carrying the burden of the world on his shoulders, and we didn't always feel like giving him a hand.

His flock eventually switched off. Some saw the light with the album Dog, the hillbilly-punk masterpiece by The Baptist Generals, and chose another parish. Woven Hand is the album that may lead the stray sheep back onto the right path of passion. "Sing the same old song / in the same old way" sings David Eugene Edwards on Wooden Brother. It is the same song indeed, but played in a different way. Lighter, livelier, more melodic.

Still, Woven Hand remains deeply influenced by the Bible, but not as blatantly. If David Eugene Edwards was Jesus, he would be Jesus as a carpenter rather than Jesus nailed on the cross. A "human" Jesus, who would hit his fingers while hammering nails in and swear like a trooper. The music, full of chiaroscuro and echoes, could have been recorded in a church, not for the sake of the sacred, though, but for the sake of acoustics.

Basically, if this record sounds like a good Nick Cave album, it is quite simply because David Eugene Edwards took great care over the music, lyrics, arrangements and sound. He broke his penitent's chains and did what was really expected of him: playing music instead of preaching. Because when Doomsday comes, only music will save lost souls. Amen.