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In 1970, after his short stint with Heavy Jelly, Jackie Lomax relocated to Woodstock, New York, USA and was signed to Warner Brothers. His first LP for them was HOME IS IN MY HEAD which featured, amongst others, Undertaker and Lomax Alliance member Bugs Pemberton on drums and Lomax Alliance bass player Tommy Caccetta.
JACKIE LOMAX says '...When I did my second album, HOME IS IN MY HEAD, in 1970, I wanted to be the guitarist. But I had two great guitar players at the time, and Bugs from the Undertakers on drums. When I got on bass, it all came alive…'
It was released in 1971 and in spite of it being his best work to date, sales were poor and it enjoyed no chart action in Britain or America. The slower tracks were particularly impressive - When I Miss You The Most, Or So It Seems, You Within Me - although the format and mix remained much as it had been on his Apple debut solo LP. It proved he could produce an impressive record without the help of the star-studded backing band featured on IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?.
The following year saw him contributing background vocals to Bonnie Raitt's GIVE IT UP LP and the release of his third solo LP (his second for Warner Brothers) entitled THREE, which featured many of the same musicians as the previous recordings as well as members of The Band on Hellfire, Night-Crier. The album was produced by John Simon who, in 1967, had produced the unreleased Lomax Alliance LP before moving on to work with The Band.
JOHN SIMON says '...Woodstock at the time had a very healthy atmosphere of sharing talents. Anyone could be asked to participate and usually would do so joyfully.…. I really like Lavender Dream - it sounds a little like Those Were The Days. I "prepared" the piano by putting wads of Kleenex between the strings. I love the sound of it. I hate synths: they make it too easy to get unorthodox sounds. It's a greater challenge to do that acoustically…'
The album picked up, quality-wise, where the last one left off, and, like the previous two, it deserved to win friends and influence people. Unfortunately it did neither.
JOHN SIMON says '...Jackie is a sweetheart to work with. And he has such a distinctive voice. Anyone can identify his vocal sound once they've heard him. Very plaintive and sometimes almost mournful…'
To promote the album, Warner Brothers released an interview LP INTERVIEW WITH JACKIE LOMAX: neither that nor the high quality of the recording itself persuaded people to buy it. In spite of tracks like No Reason and Fever's Got Me Burning and beautiful, slow, sad songs like Last Time Home, the record was inexplicably overlooked by the record-buying public and, out of contract, Jackie returned to England in 1973.
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