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The story of Vancouver’s The Reckoners, Christina Simpson and Ricardo Khayatte, is a love story. The two met during a retreat a few years back and it was love at first sight. …And the Sky Opened Up, the duo’s debut, is love at first listen. The duo’s vocal interplay is spellbinding and the folk/country melodies feel breezy and effortless, bouyed by road-weary wisdom and propelled by the strength of the pair’s bond. This may only be a six-song offering, but listen to the shuffle-y Heartbreaker or the back porch worthy The Wanderer and you will hear a true, stripped-down gem hinting at a very bright future. - Francois Marchand, Vancouver Sun

There must be something in the BC air that spawns sweet vocal harmonies. To the likes of harmony-driven groups like the Blue Shadows and the Be Good Tanyas, you can now add the Reckoners. Based on this debut six-song EP, the Vancouver, BC-based folk duo have the potential to take a place alongside those greats. Featuring Berklee graduate and TV composer Ricardo Khayatte and Christina Simpson, their voices fuse together so well it’s hard to imagine they’ve only been singing together for two years. The songs ? all written by Khayatte ? are nicely fleshed out with bass, drums, lap steel and guitar. They’re all on the gently contemplative side, and the imaginative lyrics of a number like “Eye For An Eye” (“I wish I was raised by...

The backstory of Vancouver based indie folk-pop duo The Reckoners reads a bit like a fairy tale. Ricardo Khayatte (vocals, guitar) and Christina Simpson (vocals) met at a cabin in the woods when invited out by a mutual friend for a ski weekend. The two hit it off and this EP is the fruit of that fateful meeting. From the moment you hear Eye for an Eye one is immediately willingly enslaved by the plaintive beauty of these two voices. Whether it’s the stark mournfulness of the carefully crafted balladSomethings, the catchy loping melody and honesty of Too Tough to Love, Timothy Tweedale’s haunting lap steel guitar on the country leaning Heartbreaker or the animated banjo-like guitar that propels The Wanderer, the exceptional musicianship and...

It’s hard to believe that someone who creates songs as instantly memorable as this alt-country ballad doesn’t already have a deep catalogue of recorded material, but writer Ricardo Khayatte and singer Christina Simpson, both based in Vancouver, have only just released their debut EP. The most relevant antecedent here is Ryan Adams, specifically the Adams who penned early tracks such as “16 Days” and “Desperate Ain’t Lonely” for his old (and still mourned) band, Whiskeytown. This is as good as those. - John Sakamoto, Toronto Star