“Straw Foot,” written by David Eugene Edwards during his time with 16 Horsepower, was released on that band’s 2000 album, Secret South, as the closer. It’s one of the record’s more memorable tracks — 16 Horsepower‘s take on the traditional “Wayfaring Stranger” is also particularly striking, as are several others; “Poor Mouth,” “Silver Saddle,” etc. — and this performance was filmed in 2009, some four years after they disbanded and some seven after Wovenhand, Edwards‘ subsequent and current outfit, released their landmark self-titled outing.

The two bands exist on such different wavelengths it’s hard to think of them running concurrently, though in many ways Secret South was the last 16 Horsepower album, followed by the live album Hoarse (2000), 2002’s Folklore, half of which was takes on traditional folk songs à la the aforementioned “Wayfaring Stranger” (no less brilliantly done; see “Single Girl” and “Outlaw Song”), and their swansong compilation Olden, which brought out material from early sessions in 1993 and 1994. But they did run for a while at the same time, Wovenhand releasing their sophomore album, Consider the Birds, even as 16 Horsepower embarked on some of their final touring. Hindsight gives smoothness to what at the time are often jagged transitions.

There’s a lot of great stuff on the internet. I’m particularly fond of this site, for example. There’s a lot of crap too. I’ve had a hard time coming up with something better than the clip above of Edwards playing “Straw Foot.” The raw, organic performance showing the song’s roots. Edwards‘ voice, which I’ve no doubt generations to come will fail to imitate. How the camera seems to dance in and out of focus to the music. It’s something I keep going back to, so I wanted to post it here in case anyone else had missed it along the way. I know sometimes we all get busy, and not in the fun way.

I recently had occasion to pick up Wovenhand‘s latest album, 2012’s The Laughing Stalk, on CD from Glitterhouse Records. Psych heads might recall their early Monster Magnet releases. After The Laughing Stalk (original review here) was released last fall, I spent some pretty significant time with the then-available digital stream via Bandcamp. There was a special edition LP/CD version available, but for someone like me — I hope you’ll pardon the melodrama, but I sometimes feel like the Omega Man of the CD-purchasing market — a straight-up compact disc was what I was looking for, so when I saw the Glitterhouse version available, digipak-style, I jumped on it, and no regrets.

It hadn’t been that long since I heard it anyway, but I still felt like I was somewhat revisiting tracks like “King O King” — the line “The people, a vain thing” standing out even more this time around — and the building spiritual energy of “Coup Stick,” which bides its time amidst organ tones to open up with Edwards vocals in its second half. I didn’t even know the album was recorded live (no easy feat given the variety of arrangements), so for that little piece of knowledge, it was easily worth the price for a purchase I was going to make anyway. And if the worst that happens is I spent more time hypnotized by Ordy Garrison‘s drums on “Maize” and “In the Temple,” chances are I’ll live.

Probably this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s mine, so for a bit of symmetry with where we started this post, here’s the title-track to The Laughing Stalk to finish:

Tags: Colorado, David Eugene Edwards, Glitterhouse Records, The Laughing Stalk, Wovenhand, Wovenhand The Laughing Stalk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater, Buried Treasure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.