Olden

Sixteen Horsepower

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 8, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jet Set Records
• ASIN: B00009UW2G
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,617 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Since their start in the early '90s, 16 Horsepower have created and perfected a sound that's build around a fascinating, elegiac pulse. Albums such as 2002's Folklore are inundated in jet-black rivers of dread. That sense of foreboding is found in this collection of 12 previously unreleased demons and early live tracks earlier, expressed in lead songwriter David Eugene Edwards's cracked, terrified screeches and the muscular, edgy acoustic music. The demo recording of "Coal Black Horses" (a finished version appears on their self-titled debut) throws a messy slide guitar and throbbing brush beat behind Edwards's fire-and-brimstone rant. Meanwhile, the live tracks from 1994 demonstrate the band's developing chops and emerging theatrical flourishes that characterize their more recent work. --Matthew Cooke

Product Description
16 Horsepower have forged a legacy of classic albums. Vocalist/lyricist David Eugene Edwards, the grandson of a traveling Nazarene preacher, spins tales of sin and redemption against an evocative, stripped-down backdrop. Olden is a collection of never-before-released versions of classic tracks, six along with an exclusive interview from the Night Owl Session 1993, six along with another exclusive interview from the Kerr Macy Session 1994, & six cuts spotlighting their legendary live show, Denver 1994. 20 tracks in all. Jetset. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars amazing, as usual, July 31, 2003

By	Moses Alexander (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

A peculiar release for a band with only four full length albums, one E.P. and a live album. "Olden" marks the 10th anniversary of the band's first recording sessions.

12 tracks recorded over a two year period, 6 live tracks and two interview snippets. Despite being a hodgepodge assembly, "Olden" is remarkably coherent. 16 of the tracks made it to later albums and only two songs "Train Serenade" and "Slow Guilt Trot" make their debut here.

While many would consider this an unnecessary, redundant release, it is actually superior in many ways to the major label versions that would appear later. These versions are much more gritty, earthy and unpolished, a sound that suits 16HP creaky bandoneon, jangly guitars, plunking banjo and haunting vocals quite well.

Standout tracks include the apocalyptic "Coal Black Horses", the hypnotic "My Narrow Mind" and the driving "Slow Guilt Trot."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The title is apt, July 8, 2003

By	"firewalkwithme00" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This is a collection of live material from three seperate dates in 1993 and 94. It showcases everything I love about old sixteen horsepower. They have changed a lot in the last ten years and are even better now but this old stuff is amazing. Sixteen Horsepower are an amazing band because they play a type of music unlike any other band. Rooted in old time roots music and church music, they have a sound that is timeless. Their music is beautiful, creepy, exciting, and perfect. I love it. The only thing I don't like about this album is the brief snippits of interviews that are used to break up the recordings. They are too short to provide any insight at all. If they didn't want to put any meaningful discussion on the cd, they shouldn't have bothered at all. Otherwise, I recommend this CD wholeheartedly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dance With The Snakes Unbeliever!, March 3, 2006

By	Jack Knife (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This album can be downright terrifying. Some of the music sends chills up my spine. I describe the first song as thus: A hillbilly funeral shambles down the main street of a one horse town in Appalachia carrying a pine coffin and playing a squeezebox, while an old blues man picks away on a porch on the side. It points to the dark heart of old time Southern religion and mountain culture and to the feuds and moonshine that went along with it. I once watched a documentary on the rural Holy Ghost church where people dance around with venemous snakes with the belief that if they have not sinned then the snakes will not harm them. This is the soundtrack to that dance.