From late 1964 until late 1968, Loma stood as the subsidiary of Warner Brothers Records aimed directly at the singles market. During its four year lifespan, the label released over 100 singles and a handful of albums, the vast majority of which reflected the collective taste of the men that guided Loma and thereby the evolution of a distinctive artform: soul music.
Viewed objectively, it would be incorrect to compare Loma to the other great R&B repositories of the mid-1960s. It was strictly an adjunct of a bigger label, a commercially-minded operation that threw product at the wall hoping for a hit to stick. But the choices made by those three main participants in charge of the Loma roster–Bob Krasnow, Russ Regan, and Jerry Ragovoy–have gone on to become cherished totems to legions of music aficionados around the globe, for whom chart statistics say little, while a simple 45 with a burnt yellow label can shake them to the very core. What was once regarded as failure has, in the years since, paradoxically become a story of soulful success.
Volume two of Loma: A Soul Music Love Affair focuses on the funkier, earthier side of the Loma catalog and is once again the result of several years of in-depth research into the vault. JJ Jackson and The Mighty Hannibal bring the boogaloo, Baby Lloyd and Lukas Lollipop offer up some deep soul, and the stratospheric pipes of Carl Hall make us wanna holler. There’s the grooving original of “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” by diva Lorraine Ellison, little-heard rarities from Larry Laster and Roy Redmond, obscure productions by James Brown and Solomon Burke, and a heartbreaking unissued cut by one-time Hendrix sideman Lonnie Youngblood.
With full historical notes on artist and label history and rare pieces of ephemera, Loma: A Soul Music Love Affair is a fresh and invigorating celebration of one of 60s soul’s most storied imprints.
