The opening cut on King Fisher King, "Arkansas," opens with a quiet piano figure. Then, however, a Celtic band comes in, pipes and fiddles playing a martial figure. After a chorus of that, the vocals enter, strong three-part harmony and the song marches along, propelled by harmony, pipes, guitars and bouzoukis. It's a glorious and moving song, and sets you up for a powerful album.

But then the CD sort of dies. The second song, "Eve," is a weepy ballad, sung by Sue Demet, with no harmony help from the other members of the band and accompanied by a plucked guitar and a cello.

Far from loving it, I'm wondering what happened to all that power. Although the Sons of the Never Wrong, a trio consisting of Bruce Boyer, Deborah Taper and Demet, offers a variety of songs, they never really cohere as a band again. Instead, the album comes across as a bunch of singer-songwriters trading songs, while backing each other when another member is featured.

They trot out a variety of styles and arrangements, even bringing in a tenor sax on one song, but that just makes the album sound as though it has no core identity. If only all of it were as good as "Arkansas."