This handsome foursome hailing from the four corners of Ireland have congregated in Dublin to produce for us some of the most melodic and thought-provoking music to emerge from the Irish music scene in years. Formed in 2000 from the remnants of a previous project, Wicker are doing good for themselves. With a new album due out this month and an Irish tour lined up, this promises to be a breakthrough year.
The tunes are acoustically motivated with vast melodies driven on by a relentless rhythm section. Stevin Tedstone, fresh from a solo tour of the West Coast of the U.S., is the main creative influence. He attributes his deepest lyrics to years of heartbreak and broken bottles in the barrens beaches of Donegal. Declan Carey --a virtual Johnny Marr on crack-- mixes charming finesse with hard-driven riffs. Keith Walsh on Bass and Nigel Kellett on drums make up this powerful line up.
“Earth song,” from their E.P. ‘Open,’ is inspiring. The mellow acoustic riff leads us on a journey, begging us to come to our own conclusions about the state of this planet, without getting too angry about it. Tedstone’s deep-thought lyrics and infectious chords are evident throughout.
Wicker hopes to get the ball rolling with this latest album. Details of the release date and upcoming Irish tour are available on their website, www.wickermusic.com, where you'll also find links to a few recent radio interviews and songs for free download.
All in all Wicker have a strong future and don’t be surprised if it finds them on this side of the water soon. If you like a band that stirs the imagination while making you want to rock along Wicker are well worth a'checking out. Highly recommended. —DG
Wicker's songs remained on Unlikely 2.0 for one year, then were removed for reasons of space and copyright. Please check out their web site.
You will need an MP3 player to download the music, such as the free Winamp.