Like some of the best bands from Washington, Jesse Sykes’ was born over beers at Ballard’s famed restaurant Hattie’s Hat. As her former bad Hominy had come to an end, guitar player Phil Wandscher was over playing guitar for Whiskeytown (and not getting paid). Subsequently, the Sweet Hereafter was born. Their aptly titled debut album Reckless Burning was released in 2002 smoldering with sleepy Americana tunes enveloped in intensely emotional lyrics and scathing metaphors centered around heartbreak and desolation. The title-track opens with slow crumbling guitar feedback and vintage toned guitars that push Sykes’ amazing voice up front and center. Although she looks like a dead-ringer for a young Emmylou Harris, her weathered voice sounds more like Chan Marshall’s lilting inflections with a hint of Sandy Denny’s pained restraint. The banjo in “Doralee” is played so sparingly that its rustic old notes haunt the song before the brushed snare drum and watery pedal steel of “Lonely Still” pick up the pace. Sykes gussies up her vocals with cascading harmonies on the beautifully arranged “Drinking With Strangers.”