Musicians Featured:

• Tabor Allen - drums (2,4)

• Ana Barreiro - drums (1)

• Danny Frankel - drums and percussion (7,8,10)

• Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon - vocals acoustic guitar, grand piano, organ

• Stephen Hodges - drums(6)

• Steuart Liebig - electric bass (2,4)

• Jeff Parker - electric guitar (4,5,10)

• Cathlene Pineda - grand piano (8,10), Wurlitzer (7)

• Chris Schlarb - (acoustic guitar (1,7,8,11)

• Anthony Shadduck - double bass (1,6,8,10), electric bass (7)

String Musicians:

• Philip Glenn - violin, string arrangements

• Chrissy Johnson - cello

• Chris McCarthy - cello

• David Tranchina - double bass

Horn Musicians:

• Ramsey Hampton - trombone

• Omar Murillo - trombone

• Sam Robles - baritone saxophone

• Alex Sadnik - alto saxophone, horn arrangements

• Kris Tiner - trumpet, flugelhorn

Choir Musicians:

• Natasha Campbell

• India Carney, Lashawn Chester

• Calvin DuPree

• Aaron Encinas

• Dovema Franklin

• Tony Franklin

• Estelita Jernigan

• Adriana Schlarb

• Ashli St. Armant

• Christine Noel

• Heather Sommerhauser

• Ann Louise Thaiss

• Ineta Washington

• Timothy Williams (choir director)

Album Artwork:

• Front Cover Photography by Olivia Hemaratanatorn

• Back Cover Photography by Devin O’Brien

• Layout by David J. Woodruff

Press:

“ Subtly subversive piano-pop… A sweet croon + swooning soul/jazz band arrangements that occasionally recall Talk Talk.” “ — NPR, All Songs Considered

Also reviewed in Ventipop

Liner Notes by Chris Schlarb:

It was a perfect spring afternoon in Los Angeles and Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon was trying to keep his head on straight. Nomadic by nature, Harmon was living out of his guitar case in a hotel room while competing on ABC’s newly acquired television Goliath, American Idol. He was also secretly recording his first full length album with me out in Long Beach. Deploying a tenor with a range that made Lionel Richie implore him to, “make it look hard,” Jeremiah made it into the show’s final acts before being eliminated in early May of 2019. Anticipating a major label deal was imminent we started on the record without any funding or oversight. By this point, three sessions were already in the books with another tentatively scheduled for the coming weekend with jazz pianist Cathlene Pineda, bassist Anthony Shadduck, and former Lou Reed and Fiona Apple drummer Danny Frankel.
There was just one catch: the American Idol season finale.
Jeremiah sent me a text,“So I just got word that I’m prerecording with Katy Perry tomorrow night.”
For a show built around the apparatus of “the star-maker machinery,” it’s ironic that the most popular moment of Jeremiah’s time on Idol was the solo performance of his original song, “Almost Heaven.” A meditation on the geography of acceptance and the perimeter of religious legalism, the song immediately connected with a wide and unclassifiable audience. Born in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1992, Harmon’s father was an itinerant preacher who moved his family as the opportunities called. Jeremiah’s teenage years were spent singing in Memphis, Tennessee churches before winding up in Lynchburg, Virginia in his early 20’s. It was there, in 2016, that he and I first met up to record a handful of songs in his living room. While full of promise, the psychedelic, self-titled EP we created went largely unnoticed.
Quiet and thoughtful in his personal demeanor, it seems counterintuitive that Jeremiah’s breakout moment would come on national TV - a medium suffused with bombast and smug self-importance. After breaking through the show’s Top 10 every action seemed to have a massive reaction: upon singing Elton John’s “We All Fall In Love Sometimes” - a Jeff Buckley favorite - Harmon received a phone call from Sir Elton and his public declaration that the performance,“Took my breath away.” He caught the attention of actress and Broadway singer Cynthia Erivo and the pair sang the Cyndi Lauper hit “Time After Time” as a duet. Meanwhile, after daily soundstage rehearsals for Idol, Jeremiah worked on the lyric and chord charts for his own songs and drove out to BIG EGO, the little recording studio my wife and I opened in Long Beach. The first three sessions yielded nine songs including “Almost Heaven” featuring a rhythm section of Cherry Glazerr drummer Tabor Allen and L.A. bass virtuoso Steuart Liebig. Eventually the scope of the album would grow to include an orchestra, a gospel choir, iconoclastic guitarist Jeff Parker, and Stephen Hodges, drummer on the Tom Waits classic Swordfishtrombones.
As it happened, there was a “five figure” major label deal. Jeremiah signed it. They wanted two songs including “Almost Heaven” and insisted he work with an established pop music producer, scrapping the work we had already completed. Ever the wanderer, Harmon felt the walls closing in and called his lawyer: cancel the checks and get out of the deal. He would finish the album you’re now holding, Namesake, with the musicians and singers who quickly became part of his community. Harmon’s music, much like his trajectory through the machinery, feels particularly charmed. Almost no one gets out unscathed. Thank heaven he did.