Consider the Birds

Great! Haunting, gothic folk from David Eugene Edwards, frontman for 16 Horsepower. This arises from the great well-spring of twistedness that is the American Folk Tradition (see the Anthology of American Folk Music) and could be played with Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Carla Bozulich, and the Handsome Family. The instrumentation is acoustic, spare, and oddly displaced-sounding with DEE's (somtimes distorted) vocals in front. There are occasional tribal grooves and many songs feature disturbingly too-long instrumental breaks. All this gives the songs a spooky and tense feel. The lyrics are religious (the woven hand refers to a hand in prayer) with revivalist lyrics drawn from the Christian Bible. no FCCs. stand-out tracks: 3, 6, 9, 10

1. intense, enveloping atmosphere, piano
2. spare, intense, slurred distorted vocals, wobbly, dark instrumental break
==> 3. maddening! unnerving strings, tribal groove, weird shouts (speaking in tongues?), religious message
4. electrified, with organ(?) and tribal drums, backtracking
5. pretty, folky
==> 6. epic with spare instrumentation (mostly piano), dark trilling vocals
7. tribal with drums and piano, all about Jesus
8. Irish ballad feel, traditional song
==> 9. banjo-driven with little explosions of drums, unnerving, backwoodsy
==> 10. intense, haunting with piano, spooky noises

Eric K!