Living at Night

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter Offer Frosty Warmth

originally published March 7, 2007

The wind off Puget Sound pulls stove smoke sideways this time of year in Seattle, where night and winter drag on in dark green corridors and everyone remains bundled, cloistered behind rain-swept doors. The landscape turns interior; an entire season spent dashing through the elements to the next warm, dry spot. Events unfold within place, in contrast to the ongoing circumstances outside. In winter, Seattle is a city behind closed doors, and the emotional effect produces a psychic climate, one everyone has awareness of, whether they have been there or not. There is a sense of refuge in every dry corner, where the weariness from nature's reckoning is assuaged among a warmer kind.

Home to the Northwest fishing fleet, the Ballard neighborhood is a brick-and-mortar enclave where sailor bars and tattoo parlors are the most common landmarks. It is also the Northwest headquarters for all things alt-country, Americana and twang rock. It is where the Drive-By Truckers worked up a legion of fans at the Tractor Tavern, and where, two doors down, at Hattie’s Hat, Jesse Sykes and Phil Wandscher brought forth the Sweet Hereafter from the ashes of their respective recently departed projects: she of the late Hominy, and he of the beloved Whiskeytown. In 1998, they began performing together as a duo to immediate local acclaim, Sykes writing most of the material and Wandscher augmenting her work with Faithless Street -era guitar work. By 2002, the duo had expanded to include Neko Case sideman Bill Herzog on bass and drummer Kevin Warner, later adding Anne Marie Ruljancich for violin and vocal duties. Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard recommended them to his label Barsuk, which signed Sykes and released her debut LP Reckless Burning later that year. Non-stop touring kept the band working throughout North America and in Europe for much of the next two years, before Sykes and company eventually returned to Seattle to record and release their follow-up, 2004’s Oh, My Girl , a collection of rich, warm country-noir. Now out for the third time around, Sykes and her band in February released their third effort, Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls Of The Soul , a 12-track montage that winds along like a two-lane blacktop through the night.

Sykes’piney, night-hewn voice recalls something of an earlier era, the resigned dislocation of misplaced fortune, a time when pay phones held all the secrets of the sordid road. Earlier material plainly states longing, a theme tracked solidly throughout each release, but on Like, Love, Lust , Sykes comes two-stepping right out of her more reserved nature. Though quiet at first, “Eisenhower Moon” gives the ear a ticket back to Harvest -era Neil Young, with delicate finger-picking, soft harmonica and later, big, blocked piano chords. On the third track, “You Might Walk Away,” she comes tumbling into the song with a beautiful lyric-as-melody that just couldn’t work any other way, and has a playful '60s-like keyboard texture behind the verse. By the time “The Air is Thin” rolls around, the mixture of hope and longing pay off in a beautiful multi-voice chorus that finds Sykes gliding above in a majestic sendoff to the song. “How Will We Know” brings in the textured organ work of avant-maestro Wayne Horovitz, while the horn work of Dave Carter, Ben O’Shea and Josiah Busty further round out the record.

If ever the premise of a “summer” record or a “winter” record could be applied, it would be here. The shadowy, bleak songs come out of the speaker like frost, the vocals softly ushered to the microphone with a breezy distance. Lyrics hesitantly creep out of Sykes as though they wanted to float by unnoticed. Her hushed tones can work against her at times, often sounding similar to one another from song to song. But just as the mind wanders from this effect, Sykes and company sideswipe you with the very '60s psychedelic pop of “I Like the Sound,” recalling The Mamas & the Papas or an edgier Grace Slick. Wandscher adds great fire as well as competent reserve while adorning the wallpaper behind the voice, while violinist Ruljancich pulls sinewy harmonies throughout. Though not too far from the beaten path, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter are distinct enough to stand out among the cultural milieu of 20 years from now. For those who enjoyed the ascent of Gillian Welch and Chan Marshall, getting in on Jesse Sykes now may prove to be as rewarding.

Coy King

WHO: Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Tin Cup Prophette
WHERE: Melting Point
WHEN: Friday, March 9, 8:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $11.50 (advance), $12 (door)