POP MUSIC : In Brief

*** Sixteen Horsepower, “Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes,” A&M.; Spooky death ballads are as old as the hills--and that’s just where the inspiration came from for this Denver trio’s haunted combinations of David Eugene Edwards’ pained vocals, wheezy bandoneon, slide guitar and/or banjo. This is mountain music, but the mountains of “Elmer Gantry” and “Deliverance,” not “Hee Haw.” It’s a bracing debut, staking out the crossroads where Nick Cave meets the Violent Femmes.