Wicklow Atwater
The Fallen Flame String Band
(self-released)

“Don’t Throw (My Love Away),” with its quick lines of mandolin, banjo, bass, and backing harmonica, opens Wicklow Atwater’s new album, The Fallen Flame String Band. The band here (Billy Lupton on mandolin and vocals; Nick Lupton on guitar; Jessica Alvillar on violin; Gilbert Montoya on banjo and vocals; David Archey on harmonica and vocals) have this wackiness well in hand. “Minimum Wage” rolls at you just as quickly as that opening tune, though the lyrics here are wonderfully wry. “Come on Over,” featuring Alvillar’s violin in the lead parts, slows down a bit while we get multiple narrators telling the story. “Infidelity” is one of those ubiquitous man-walks-in-on-his-bride-and-his-best-man tales, again in the style and speed that the band shows mostly throughout here. On what might be the best song for me (again, I seem to be responding to Alvillar’s violin on the ones I like best), the pretty love song “Don’t Wanna Wait Forever,” the band really makes its point sweetly. And “Been a Couple Days,” a pleading love song, ends the album. Overall, this is good stuff from Wicklow Atwater – well played, sung, and written. It’s just that there are quite a few times here where I can’t tell one song from another. The guys have a certain sound they just kick and kick ’til it up and rears over them. But then again, variety isn’t everything, I know.