16 Horsepower

16 Horsepower will be at Le 106 in Rouen on May 15, 2026. Led by David Eugene Edwards and his longtime collaborators, the Denver‑born group forged in the 1990s a dark strain of Americana where rural folk, country and post‑punk impulses meet without superfluous embellishment. Banjo, guitars and a taut rhythmic pulse establish a dry tension, while Edwards’s voice—imbued with biblical imagery—opens vistas that look toward the Appalachians.

From Sackcloth ’n’ Ashes to Low Estate, then Secret South and Folklore, 16 Horsepower alternate between electric density and acoustic sparseness, with a marked taste for rearranged traditional material. On stage the band trades on an economy of means and the dynamics of contrast: menacing arpeggios, counter‑melodies in chiaroscuro, and contained surges. In Rouen, one can expect a tour through the standout pieces of their repertoire, from deliberately measured ballads to more propulsive gallops, along that ridge between folk roots and indie rock also documented on Hoarse, their live recording.