Jesse Sykes

The word 'artist' these days is used to refer to pretty much any musician, but few songwriters or performers approach their musical life with the degree of intense concern as does Jesse Sykes. Although originally a visual artist (she holds a degree in photography from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design), Sykes sings that "only music sets my soul free.” She's always, however, brought a deep visual sense to her textually (and texturally) rich songwriting.

Raised in the cold damp of upstate New York, Jesse Sykes moved to the cold damp of the Pacific Northwest and started to make music (described at one time by Sykes herself as "spooky American music") that feels equally at home during a drive across the desert as it does next to a cozy fire in the woods. Her first two critically acclaimed albums (Reckless Burning [2003], and Oh, My Girl [2004], both recorded with her band The Sweet Hereafter) are fragile, sometimes desolate landscapes, evoking images of damp fields populated with leafless trees and darkened rural roads smoldering with American folk idiom.

Embraced -- and sometimes frustratingly genre-labeled -- by fans of so-called 'alt-country' music (encouraged in such labeling, perhaps, by Sykes' longtime collaboration with guitarist/songwriter Phil Wandscher, co-founder of seminal post-punk Americana band Whiskeytown) and increasingly by more experimental-indie listeners of Low, Bright Eyes, Palace, or Smog, Sykes' work has been characterized by a compelling mixture of longing, dark depression, and hope:

“Spellbound music, rapt in fatalism and sorrow.” - The New York Times (2004 “The Ones That Got Away” year end feature.)

“A beautiful, heart-breaking album. Country gothic at its bleakest and most starkly poignant.” - Paste (FOUR STARS)

After wrapping up Oh, My Girl touring in mid-2005, Sykes wasted no time in throwing herself back into songwriting, arranging, and expanding her sonic palette. Perhaps most surprising among the fruits of this work is a collaboration with respected avant-metal bands Sunn 0))) & Boris on a track on the groups' 2006 album Altar, a pigeonhole-defying move that nevertheless felt perfectly natural in the context of Sykes' sometimes-mystical leanings and expansive taste.

She also completed a new album with The Sweet Hereafter; produced, recorded and mixed by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, The Long Winters) and Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Kings of Leon), with additional recording and production by Randall Dunn (Kinski, SunnO)))). Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls of the Soul is a musically deep piece of work, addressing themes of love, illusion, forgiveness, and the universality of the human experience.

Her band (along with guest appearances from Scandinavian cult songwriter Nicolai Dunger, jazz keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, and avant garde violinist/composer Eyvind Kang) explore new sounds with a confident ease, from the lilting first single "You Might Walk Away" to the waltzing sway of "Station Grey" to the hallucinatory psychedelia of "I Like the Sound". Open Halls' guitar solos and driving rhythms could easily be lost gems cut by Crazy Horse between takes with Neil, yet the record retains the atmospheric beauty of much of Sykes' earlier work as well.

The band's musical growth has been mirrored by the evolution and maturation of Sykes' distinctive singing voice, which time has saturated with a weathered wisdom that connects to something beyond the singer and the song. And the visual aesthetic of Sykes' songwriting has never been more evocative. She says she was trying with her new songs to capture the vibe of the early years of this new millenium -- listen closely to Sykes' stark descriptions of isolation, sometimes-swaggering toughness, fragile human emotion, and the possibilities of love, and you'll hear a sound that perfectly, tenderly, and surprisingly captures the sound of the 21st century so far -- it's the sound of vulnerability, and the sound of the best and most relevant piece of art Jesse Sykes has ever made.

Formed from the ashes of two alternative country bands, Whiskeytown and Hominy, the duo of lead singer/guitarist Jesse Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher met in 1999 in Seattle's Hattie Hat bar. Sykes had just ended a relationship with Jim Sykes and had slowed her songwriting down, but a new seed was sprouted when meeting Wandscher. The pair began performing as a duo and received much praise, creating a slow buzz. The group eventually added drummer Kevin Warner, bassist Bill Herzog, and violinist Anne Marie Ruljancich. After entering the studio they recorded their debut release, Reckless Burning, which was released in April 2002. Over the next few years, the group shared the stage with Neko Case, Richard Buckner, Mark Olsen, and the Supersuckers, among others. Sykes' second album, Oh, My Girl, came out two years later. Her third effort, Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul, emerged in 2007. ~ Jason MacNeil, All Music Guide