Get Out Friday: Jesse Sykes at the Tractor

Jesse Sykes is playing at the Tractor Tavern this Friday and we couldn't be happier about it. Along with Neko Case, we can't think of a local-grown voice that we like better than Jesse's. What makes it even better is that she's billing it as "a special last-minute acoustic show" according to her MySpace page.

If you know Jesse Sykes and her music, you already know why this is so exciting. Her melodic, sometimes ephemeral, sometimes smoky voice is a perfect complement to wondrous lyrics that often take you right to the soul of what she's singing about. Stripping all but one member (Phil Wandscher) of her band, The Sweet Hereafter, away for a night will only serve to highlight what we think makes her music so unique.

If you don't know Jesse Sykes, you should. Take, as an example, the opening sentences to her "About" text:

My life is going by at an insane speed - as lives tend to do. I've been here just long enough to have almost forgotten where it is I really came from, or maybe it's that I've been here long enough to have learned how to let go of "that" constant longing for where I came from. I've started to love people I once disliked or even thought I hated, and I have stopped loving some that I thought I could never be free of.

We don't think we could sum up how life has changed us thus far as well if we sat down and spent as long as it took to write it. Since we pulled this from MySpace, we're pretty sure she just wrote that without even her trying. Imagine her lyrics.

We couldn't find a good video on YouTube, but found some footage of her on Juan's Basement which you should check out.

Jesse Sykes plays at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard on Friday. Check out their site for tickets.

9pm // 5213 Ballard Ave NW // $7

Thanks for the picture we found in the Seattlest Flickr Pool, rise888.