Jaimee Harris - Boomerang Town (2023) [Hi-Res]

THEMES Nostaligia, Leaving Your Hometown, Death, Loss, Relationships, Finding Your Place This album is a collection of songs that helped me explore the imprint my hometown and my family of origin made on me. I?ve often referred to my hometown as a ?Boomerang Town,? meaning that people who try to leave seem to find themselves coming back. My partner, Mary Gauthier, says ?If you want to talk about the trauma of war, you can?t talk about the war. It?s too big. You have to tell the story from behind one soldier?s eyes.? That?s what I found while writing Boomerang Town. This song cycle brings the listener behind the eyes of a seventeen year old boy who works at Wal-Mart, a mother who has lost her pre-teen son, a young woman in the throes of alcoholism, people living in silent desperation, and souls renewed by the promise of new love. Why was I able to get out of my boomerang town? Why are others stuck there, longing to leave but unable to find their way out? Writing these songs, bringing these narrators to life, brought me closer to the answers. Even though I was able to leave, I was not able to escape the generational cycle of addiction and mental illness. I had to deconstruct my Evangelical upbringing, keeping the good things I took from it (the importance of service and loving my neighbor), and rejecting the bigotry and brainwashing ? then find faith again, my own way, outside of religion, through recovery, fellowship, and the alchemy of songwriting. My hometown is no different than the hometown of millions of others. These songs tell the story of what it is like to live in these towns, in these times. This is what it?s like to be a part of the post ?Born to Run? generation. Springsteen?s generation had somewhere to run to. I?m not so sure mine does. Whether or not you grew up in a small town or were born and raised in New York City, I bet you can relate to these characters. I bet you know what it feels like to grieve the loss of a loved one or a dream. I bet you?ve experienced how one seemingly small decision can alter the course of your entire life, for better or worse. These characters are a reflection of a people whose resilience, hope, and faith is being tested. I love them. I am them.