Sam Reckless • Dark Times on Glamroad

Just imagine: You're hitchhiking on a sunny autumn day, and a convertible with the top down stops. At the wheel is a young woman, in the back is a man who's not so young anymore.

You sit on the passenger seat. The woman begins singing and the man cloaks her in a mantel of warm guitar sounds, as if to protect her from the world's evil. You might wonder if you've landed in Amy Winehouse and Ry Cooder's car, and the journey continues, past abandoned marriage chapels lost on the edge of the Arizonan desert, by farmers' markets in New England, through backyards in Nashville, to end with a relaxed brew on the beach with Jack Johnson.

It makes no difference where you step out, what will stay with you is the blues and the yearning in Ms. Tariq's voice.