This review originally appeared in the Rainbow Rodeo newsletter in February. Adeem the Artist wrote up this review of Jaimee Harris’ album Boomerang Town. If you’d like to help support queer country artists writing reviews of their peers, donate to Rainbow Rodeo issue 3 today! This article will appear in the zine!
Between the long vowels that Jaimee Harris croons with her honeysuckle drawl and the conversational poetry that finds its rhythm effortlessly, Boomerang Town casts a shadow across the spectrum of the human heart. From the first track, where the record draws its name, the honesty is truly palpable.
“The day I turned 16, I got that job — couldn’t wait to buy a car and save enough to leave this town for good. In August, I asked Julie if she’d run away. She said she wanted to wait until May to graduate — She’d be the first in her family, so I stayed behind.”
Jaimee writes in illustrative prose, draping language like a leather jacket on the archetypal pining for getting out of this town. It almost reads like a Springsteen song conceptually but with all of the dynamic, vocal expression of Brandi Carlisle and with her wholly unique method of turning short stories into melodic charm.
I’m struck by the natural, warm tones of the acoustic guitars and the subtle reverb. “How Could You Be Gone,” pulls the listener close with a naked, glaring exposition on the grief of losing someone. “‘I’m sitting in a plastic chair / the preacher’s words hang in the air.” Intentional examinations of the relationship between suffering and class parade throughout the album so casually you might miss them.
Ever the sucker for an acoustic guitar, I am enamored with the tones that cut through the mix without sacrificing their warmth- though some of that, surely, is to the credit of Jaimee’s patient finger style. The production is complementary and holistic, though, often spilling the fragility of just a guitar and voice into a swelling storm of cello, accordion, fiddle- whatever the moment demands.
Traversing familiar tropes for a low-class kid like me, I am still taken aback by her hopeful and unapologetic expose on life and love for the Queer in a rural Boomerang Town. This is a fully realized collection of snapshots that merits our ruminations as it is endowed with divine medicine.
Once I was recovered from the absolute gut punch of Devin’s Song, undone by the agony of young life snuffed out, she convinced me with her unwavering invocation, “Love is Gonna Come Again,” before guiding my shoulders to move with the bouncing rhythm of the “Missing Someone.” Beyond its cerebral quality, it’s a collection of 90’s Country-informed melodies that dance and drive.
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