About 8 years ago I interviewed David Eugene Edwards, the man behind Wovenhand, for a short-lived Seattle magazine called Bandoppler. Edwards was on tour with his now defunct band the incredibly powerful yet woefully ignored Sixteen Horsepower. It was a long interview that ended in raised voices and one of us hanging up on the other. We talked about Sixteen Horsepower and the depth and glory of the band’s catalog. The band’s third record, “Secret South”, which was saved from obscurity thanks to the recent re-issue on Alternative Tentacles, had been released a year or so earlier and I could not stop listening to it. It was a dark and honest record about sin, destruction and, on occasion, some kind of redemption.
Edwards has always been forthright about his religious faith. The grandson of a strict Nazarene preacher, he was raised under the threat of hell and, while he found voices he identified with in the likes of Joy Division, Nick Cave and other artists with a similar fascination and residence between the contradictions and commonalities of the darkness and light, Edwards heeded the call of an evangelist (though he’d likely deny this). Only, instead of orating inside the walls of the church, he began crafting some truly inspiring and polarizing music in his different musical incarnations.
Though his music has been called Americana and sometimes country, he’s had his songs covered by the black metal band Marduk. Despite being influenced by the likes of Einsturzende Neubauten and the Birthday Party, he’s still most commonly seen on stage with a banjo, a harmonica and an upright bass. It’s all these things that make his work so brilliant and unique.
Wovenhand, Edwards latest incarnation, is similar in many ways to his days in Sixteen Horsepower. On their latest record, “The Threshing Floor”, there’s a dark thread that weaves through out the layers of instruments. And his lyrical themes are even more potent as he sees the end of time up ahead. It’s heavy stuff but not unlike the themes that metal and punk bands have been grappling with since their inception.
Edwards and the rest of Wovenhand will be performing a 21+ show at The Crocodile this Fri, the 21st. Opening will be the punk band Git Some whose latest record, “Loose Control”, is a beautiful combination of noise, punk, metal and violence. Neither of these bands should be missed!
Words by Roy Culver
Brilliant.
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