LUKA BLOOM
(Century Ballroom) Folkie Luka Bloom may be Irish, but it takes a whole lot more than a cute accent to transform an LL Cool J rap into a stripped-down, genuinely affecting, acoustic-based number. Of course, there's a whole lot more to his repertoire (and talent) than one novelty number (although his gift for reinterpreting other people's songs did lead to an entire album's worth of covers a couple of years ago). Since the release of his first solo album, Riverside, in 1990, Bloom has been wowing audiences and critics alike with a rare ability to score simultaneous emotional and intellectual bull's-eyes - his voice rich with feeling and depth, his words conveying that particular Irish gift for storytelling and lyrical dexterity. Pick up any of his albums and you're in for a treat; go see him live and you're in for a real experience.

Barbara Mitchell
www.thestranger.com/current/up_coming.html

After the unfortunate incident of the cancelled tour last year, dates for Luka Bloom's 2002 USA tour are finally available. Luka has chosen Colorado to be one of about a half a dozen venues in The United States on his 'Between The Mountain & The Moon' tour. Luka's sixth album, 'Between the Mountain and the Moon', is his first collection of new, original material since 'Salty Heaven', released four years ago (Luka did release 'Keeper of the Flame', in 2001 containing songs written by his favorite classic and contemporary artists).

The critical response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The Sydney Morning Herald called Between the Mountain and the Moon "arguably the best and most coherent album Bloom has ever produced". And Ireland's Hot Press adds "...his most fully realized collection of original songs yet."

A consistently engaging live performer, Luka has always been comfortable on a stage with little more than a couple of guitars, and maybe a vase of flowers. The challenge for him in making records has been how to capture both the exuberance and the intensity of his performances. "This is the first time I felt confident in a studio," he confesses. "I've finally found a relationship with a studio and an engineer, where I feel capable of expressing myself without too much fear." The studio is the legendary Windmill Lane, where everyone from U2 to the Rolling Stones has recorded. "It's a beautiful room to sing in," he reveals. "If you listen to some old jazz records, like Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald, you can hear the drums, the bass, and the brass. You can hear the session. You can hear the room. That's the reason why Windmill Lane is important to me, because you can capture the sense of people performing." The engineer is Brian Masterson, a veteran of sessions with the Chieftains and Van Morrison, among many others, and co-producer of Keeper of the Flame. Special guests on the album include Luka's gifted nephew Conor Byrne, a flautist and recording artist in his own right, and singer Sinead O'Connor.

Luka's show in Colorado will include Denver based Mollie O'Brien, accompanied by guitarist (and husband) Rich Moore. Though she is often associated with the folk and bluegrass worlds because of her frequent collaboration with her brother Tim O'Brien, Mollie is just as comfortable in the world, jazz, blues and pop. Rolling Stone said of this top interpretive singer, "there's a heartfelt intelligence in (her) roots-without-whine music and it's unselfconsciously sophisticated."

www.celticconnection.com

Pictures of Luka's performance in the KBCO Studio C.
© Photos by Tim Jackson
www.kbco.com

LUKA BLOOM - Luka Bloom's newest release, "Between the Mountain and the Moon", sounds like one seamless session - intimate, impassioned, and musically, lyrically, and thematically unified, an album in the classic sense. It is a starkly beautiful recording, and a majestically romantic collection of ballads that sweeps you along on its powerful, poetic current...

www.slims-sf.com/UpComingShows.shtml

LUKA BLOOM
The younger brother of influential Irish singer/songwriter Christy Moore, Barry Moore had tired of being in his brother's shadow when he decided to relocate to the United States in 1987. Re-christening himself Luka Bloom during the long airplane ride, he took the first steps toward establishing his own reputation. A master interpreter, Bloom has continued to balance original songs with reinventions of tunes by a diverse range of songwriters. His reworking of LL Cool J's "I Need Love" transformed the song from its hip-hop origins to a brogue-inflected folk tune...... Moving to the United States, Bloom temporarily settled in the Washington, D.C., area. His first performance at a Georgetown pub led to a six-month residency, where he honed his new act. Bloom's reputation as a skilled guitarist and uplifting performer continued to grow. Accepting a second residency at the Red Lion in New York's Greenwich Village, he began to shuttle between the two clubs. By the end of the year, he had elected to make New York him home. The decision proved fortuitous when his show at the Red Lion was caught by a talent scout from Reprise, who signed him to the label.... - Craig Harris

Performing at the Village Underground
June 22, 2002 8:00 PM, $25

www.thevillageunderground.com

>> Concert Photos by Sean Daly

>> Live Review by Denise Smith