Music
Heather Anne Lomax’s upcoming album, Who Do You Think You Are?, slated for release on August 28, reveals the architecture of a long player designed to produce an emotional impact.
Zachary Ross produced, and Lomax co-produced. Steve Olmon, Jason Hiller, and Marco Moir handled engineering; Hiller and Ross mixed it; Maor Appelbaum mastered it. The album was recorded live in Los Angeles at Love Street Studios and delivers a blend of rock n’ roll, blues, and soul elements.
The album revolves around emotional recovery. Lomax treats endurance, desire, self-recognition, and deliverance as live wires. She has described the work as “a vehicle of catharsis,” and the record behaves that way: releasing pent-up emotional pressure.
The focal point of the album is her voice. Lomax sings with a force that never sounds airbrushed; the energy, tonal nuances, and lift can all be heard. “Superstar,” written by her late friend Michael Doman of The Broken Homes, forms the album’s emotional heart. Doman’s songs ignited the project in the first place.
Who Do You Think You Are? arrives with a built-in origin story: Lomax, adopted as an infant, later uncovered a bloodline threaded through American song and oral history, most notably through ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. Lomax took back her birth name, thus regenerating her identity as an artist.
Lomax’s sound carries the fingerprints of the places that shaped it: Kansas City, the Missouri Ozarks, church-soaked harmonies, country sorrow, folk plainspokenness, and the long shadow of singers who knew how to turn ache into voltage: Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Presley, Hozier, and Maria McKee among them.
“Come Along” opens the album, giving listeners a delicious taste of Lomax’s evocative voice, with its exotic phrasing, a phrasing that borders on a drawl. A bit dark and a bit deep, it’s one of those unique voices that makes you stop and listen closely.
“Come along / Follow me / Take my hand / Hey, I’ve got what you need.”
Entry points include “Step Aside,” which rides a braying organ and rumbling drums. There’s a resonant echo to the melody that summons up retro ‘70s flavors, vaguely reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane.
On “Can’t Refuse,” Lomax adds just a hint of nasality to her vocals, imbuing the lyrics with bluesy intensity. When the tempo kicks into overdrive, the song takes on a loose, rambling, pushing energy.
Cross Bad Company with Procol Harum and Uriah Heep. The result would be something like “Places Unknown,” a personal favorite because of its melodic flow and various textures. Lomax’s vocals provide an oh-so alluring and almost folk-like lilt. This is a great track.
Hints of Robert Cray run through “Superstar,” a blues-rock tune rife with wickedly swaggering dynamics. Wonderful oooh-oooh harmonies infuse the song with a voluptuous glow as Lomax struts her femme fatale vocals.
Another favorite, “Blood Red,” slows things down, rolling out on a measured rhythm and dirty, low-slung guitars. Lomax’s voice, full of burning longing, imbues the lyrics with brooding colors.
“Blood Red is my love for you / Thick and dark and coursing through / Doesn’t really matter / What you do / Cause blood red is my love for you.”
Spacious, groove-driven, and drenched in luscious blues and rock tangs, Who Do You Think You Are? is a bravura album.
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