David Eugene Edwards’ songcraft has always expressed a yearning for a return in some sense, whether to the deepest roots of American music, the innocence of childhood or to the embrace of God. So it is with Woven Hand, a more understated, less blood and rust evolution of previous musical endeavor 16 Horsepower. Where 16 Horsepower was a consummately bleak, murky permutation of traditional American Country and Appalachian Folk, Woven Hand broadens its folk horizons beyond the confines of the United States, drawing influence from older and more far flung sources and crafting them into a cohesive, uniquely American whole. This is a bit of a blessing and a curse for Woven Hand; without the somewhat stifling restrictions of 16 Horsepower’s single-minded adherence to their genre of choice they are given freer reign to explore new sonic landscapes but their newfound freedom yields a few half-baked concepts that only slightly mar their first full length offering.
David’s intent is made abundantly clear with opening line “I am nothing without His Ghost within”. As a statement of intent it evokes a very tangible spiritual presence in Woven Hand’s identity, a concept that might be an abstraction or an idea for many listeners, but is an innate reality for David. Religion is Woven Hand’s primary lyrical concern, and the imagery that David conjures is nothing short of biblical, in scope and subject. Comparisons can be made to the subject matter of the lyrics of mewithoutYou’s Aaron Weiss: both are concerned with religious truths, beliefs, doubts and fears but where Weiss draws his words from mystic wisdom, nature and Sufi poetry, David’s are drawn from the fire and brimstone of a Calvinist preacher, apocalyptic and unabashedly evangelical. It’s David’s sincerity that gives his delivery its power, his voice shaking with barely constrained intensity as the band tightly weaves their sound around his delivery.
The music draws from a number of folk instruments and influences, all working to create a somber, deep-roots sound derived from shambling country, driving alternative and droning, hypnotic folk. Drones are a fascinating new element in Woven Hand’s music, adding a mystic, trance-like sensibility to the plodding stomp of My Russia, and a feral abandon to the Eastern-European style Wooden Brother. Blue Pail Fever is akin to an ominous thundercloud over the distant highway, oppressive and somber, a stark contrast to the comparatively sunny Glass Eye although the lyrics of the latter are just as heavy as any on the rest of the album. The abyssal Ain’t No Sunshine, a nearly unrecognizable cover of the Bill Withers classic is an undisputed highlight, taking the sentiment and heartache of the original and plunging it into a mineshaft, turning the soul standard into a blood soaked Appalachian spiritual. The high point of the album however, and the one that best represents the overall sound of Woven Hand is penultimate track Your Russia, a companion piece to My Russia that sees Edwards using his newfound musical elements to the fullest effect. Undercut by rumbling, thunderous bass and droning choral vocals, Edwards’ lyrical imagery and delivery is at its most powerful, rising through the murk of the instrumentals, building to a final, wild-eyed crescendo. Emptied of all its fury, the album closes with the desolate, sparse Last Fist, a song that smolders rather that blazes, like the dying embers of a fire deep in mountain forests.
The willingness to experiment seen on Woven Hand keeps the album from the monochromatic boredom of many dark Country albums although there are a couple of missteps, namely the inconsequential and tepidly derivative Glass Eye and the pretty-but-tedious piano led Stories and Pictures, a song further marred by synths that verge on corny. On the whole though, for his first album with Woven Hand David Eugene Edwards draws effortlessly from his myriad influences and crafts a cohesive, roaring statement, a sonically rich and musically diverse salvo that sets the stage for a long and endlessly fascinating career with Woven Hand. Woven Hand would further refine their sound into something truly unique on later albums, but on their debut they play with a power and conviction that more that compensates for any debt to the music of 16 Horsepower.
