Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon

Hidden Cabaret, NYC, 2/17/20
Reviewed by Bill Sensenbrenner

You must have seen him on social media. That’s where I first saw Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon audition for American Idol almost a year ago, telling Katy Perry his story of being a preacher’s kid, like her. He was a janitor in his father’s church, singing as he cleaned. Three years earlier he came out to his parents, who advised him that it wasn’t a path he should follow. He figured his religion was stripped down to “I love you no matter what.”

Here he was at a new space for cabaret called Hidden Cabaret a year after American Idol, with the same bright, sweet face surrounded by red curly hair. He talked about the year he’s had and the challenges—“Not something I planned, and then I got out. This song is about getting out.” That introduction came near the end of his show in the song “Century Man,” one of 18 original songs he performed. (The only song in the evening he didn’t write was “Prisoner of Love” by Leo Robin/Russ Colombo/Clarence Gaskill.) “Knowing that in time I can find my place, I’ll find my way. You’ll never own the dreams that I have made.” During the performance, I wished I knew shorthand so I could take down many of the lyrics that I found so wonderful.  After his performance Harmon told me that the lyrics will be included in first CD, which is coming out next month.

Several days before this performance he was in Joshua Tree National Park in California where he wrote and recorded several songs that will be on the CD. He told us he took a red-eye flight to Baltimore, from which his boyfriend John drove him up to New York City. He acknowledges John in the back of the house, and John waves to us. It’s that openness and easy camaraderie he has with the audience that in turn draws us in with open hearts and minds to the stories he’s telling. Harmon was born in Louisiana, but also lived in Memphis, Arkansas, and Illinois. He’s in the process of figuring out where he wants to be, which is the theme tying his songs together on the CD. Nashville looks like the place he will be moving to with John.

Harmon started the show with his song “Friend,” accompanying himself on guitar. His easy vocals reminded me of James Taylor. He sings “Who can know what tomorrow brings with this unpredictable world.” If he were transported back to the Village in the ‘60s, Harmon would fit right in. 

His vocal range was incredible on his song “Out On the Run.” “Did you ever pass me by when you were out on the run?” If there was a criticism, I would say that these first two songs kept the vocals so high in pitch that the words were lost, and we needed more variety. But then my wish was granted with his song “Namesake,” which brought his vocal register lower, has he sang “Will you look your namesake in the eye this time around? Who can forget a sinner like me?”

“Lake Rita” is a bluesy tune with a long, easy intro. Harmon wrote “Silver Spoon” when he was “fed up with someone’s shenanigans.” Most of his songs relate to either people he’s loved, or the conflict he’s had with his religious background. He sings “You can take what you need if you make love to me. I ain’t gonna feed you with a silver spoon, eating me under the moonlight.” He wrote “Concerning the Void” when he was frustrated with a person he had a crush on. He wrote letters to this person, then burned them. Harmon asked the audience “Have you ever been there?” When there wasn’t a big response he joked, “Don’t leave me hangin’!” He had an easy rapport with the audience.

“Strange Creature” had a good driving beat. “Do I remind you of the you you’d like to be?” One problem Harmon has is ending his songs. They just seem to stop without any way for us to know they’re finished, and then he quickly says “Thank you” before we can take in what we just heard.

“Castles in the Sand” displays some of his most beautiful guitar playing. The dynamics of his strumming, then beating, evoke a pounding that sounds like waves crashing on the shore. 

For his next six songs Harmon moves to the piano. Although he is adequate in accompanying himself on the piano, the guitar is by far his stronger instrument. It made me wonder if, especially for recording his songs, he’d be better off having someone else play piano and while he concentrates on the vocals. The first song, “Mary Ann” is an example of his piano accompaniment being too busy underneath his vocal.

Moving from his stool to the piano, Harmon asks the audience what we did for Valentine’s Day. A couple in front said “This,” and he thinks that’s so sweet. He tells the audience that he wasn’t with his boyfriend on that day because he was out West recording his CD. Then he describes seeing the movie “Little Women” and said he got emotional in the scene where the older man buys the girl a piano. He is so at ease talking with us.

Harmon wrote his next song, “Mermantau” (a place he hadn’t been), when he came out publicly, and his friend also came out. They are from similar Christian families.
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This is a beautiful ballad, and he sings “Mama don’t see the same son as me. I’m calling a cab for my own salvation.” Then he goes right into “Almost Heaven,” the song he used to audition for American Idol. “Will there be a place where we find home?” he sings, pleading with his soaring voice, with a melody that tugs at your heart. “I can lift you higher”—and he modulates up into his powerful high register.

The next two songs continue his path to find the right person. In “Sweet June Nectar” he sings “I’m so intoxicated by your fragrance. How long can you stay in my arms before you go chasing the sun? Will you remember me like sweet June nectar?” And then comes a song he recorded a couple weeks ago in Joshua Tree, “Keep It to Yourself” where he warns “If it ain’t real, I really don’t need it. But if it’s love, I’ll take a little piece. But unless you’re here to help, you can keep it to yourself.
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” In Harmon’s short 27 years he’s had a good share of heartache.

Harmon tells us that his next song is “My Enemy,” and we will find out who that is. He sings of “That freckled face I see in the mirror. I long to be by the water’s edge where there’s peace in me. Will I ever be free, or am I a prisoner of my own world?
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” He’s able to sing about the frustrating feelings of being gay and brought up in the religious world of his parent’s church.

But then we hear his beautiful ballad “Easy Waters” about North Salem, where “Only call I’m answering is the whisper of the wind, leading me beside easy waters.”

I wish I could tell you that Harmon has upcoming shows in New York City, but I would suggest you follow this amazing talent on whatever path he takes.  For a start, listen to his CD, which will come out next month.