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Wovenhand
Ten Stones

Sounds Familyre Records

Posted: Wednesday, September 03, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Wovenhand is the current project of singer and songwriter David Eugene Edwards, who first rose to fame as the founder of 16 Horsepower, a goth-tinged Americana-themed group that toured - and at one point shared management with - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Like Cave, Edwards explores the dark side of the American tradition and is inspired by the fire and brimstone religious movements of the 19th century. Grandson of a Nazarene preacher, Edwards brings an immediacy to his use of Christian imagery that's intense and at times almost unsettling. When Nick Cave adopts the voice of an itinerant preacher, it's one of a host of characters like the born-bad outlaw or the condemned criminal that provides a lens through which he portrays aspects of the American experience. But when Edwards quotes the Gospel of Mark in "Not One Stone," there's a triumphalism, a personal intensity seemingly bereft of artifice that's hard not to get swept up in even as Edwards proclaims the coming destruction of civilization. A big part of that is Edwards' voice; he's got the same sort of hypnotic intensity as Neil Young at his best, but stronger and without the off-putting nasal quality. And there's a passion in that voice that revels in imminent disaster even when he dwells on the personal, rather than the Biblical; "Joy has come / It's risen with the sun," he sings on "The Beautiful Axe," and you feel the glory even as he continues "Beautiful the axe that flies at me." The way Edwards sings it, it's not some self-destructive surrender, but a transcendent experience. Adding to the overall energy of Ten Stones are the perfectly matched arrangements; while the expected bluesy shouts and rock stomp meets revival meeting sound show up on "Kicking Bird" and "White Knuckle Grip" and screaming fiddles add to the urgency of "Kingdom of Ice," there are also moments of brooding piano and flute to accentuate the exotic imagery of "Iron Feather," experimental ambient guitar on "His Loyal Love," and even a tender rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim's bossa nova classic "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars." Each arrangement is masterfully paired with its lyrical themes, and though Edwards' songs are often inseparable from his own Christian religious beliefs, they're undeniably affecting whether or not you share them - perhaps even more affecting, since without the salvation Edwards seems to take for granted, his visions of imminent apocalypse take on a far more fearful aspect. Perhaps the most accomplished work in an already accomplished career, Ten Stones is worthy of being placed alongside the best albums of such similar dark Americana acts as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Angels of Light, and Iron and Wine.