Sanctuary
Luka Bloom talks to Denise Sofranko

... This year Bloom went back to basics and recorded Turf, an album that captures the essence of what he is and what he does on stage. For those fans of Bloom as a live performer, the only thing they will miss on this new album is the visuals and the active interplay with the audience. During his live shows one is instantly struck by the energy emanating from Bloom. The rocking, bouncing, and pacing onstage make you wonder if he's got hydraulics in his knees or in his shoes. Frequently before taking the stage he will announce himself: "Hello. I'm Luka Bloom. Please make me welcome." He connects with the audience with a look or a comment to an especially boisterous fan in ways that few singer/songwriters with acoustic guitars can. The long surveying look during the break of his cover of LL Cool J's rap, 'I Need Love', sends yips and screams through the crowd. He is indeed delightful onstage. Like many performers, he professes to getting energy from his audiences but in this Irishman's case there's a step-up transformer somewhere; this isn't ordinary energy....

In fact it was a Dutch audience from a show Bloom did at Tivoli in Utrecht, Holland that provided the introduction in the form of a mass chorus to the song 'The Fertile Rock' on Turf.

With Turf, Bloom has finally made the album that begins to define him, the one he always knew was there. In December of 1993, he went into a Dublin studio with his engineers and co-producers, Paul Ashe-Browne and Brian Masterson, and carefully miked the performing space. Adding concert lights, monitors and everything for a live show except the audience, Bloom began to record a set of songs that were as close as possible to his live shows. He called on a loyal group of fans to be there for one of the sessions, but there was one hitch. They couldn't make any noise during or immediately following each song. That's asking a lot of any fan, especially Bloom's, but they complied and the resulting album is one in which the listener feels he is the sole member of the audience. "They were amazing," said Bloom. "I talked to them about it and I said I really appreciate your coming, but I don't need your approval. That's not the reason we're here. If anybody really needed to express themselves, I just asked them to be quiet for 10 seconds after the song was over. The song would end and there would be 10 seconds of silence for the fade and then they could do whatever they wanted."

Turf is a sometimes global, sometimes very intimate look at what is important to this songwriter. The turf, the land, the soil and all that it involves is paramount here. Turf to an Irishman can mean many things. It's something used to fuel fires in the winter, it's a treasured land often left behind. It's taking a stand when your back's against the wall. It's sacred ground that is not meant to be messed with.

Bloom's feeling for the land, for Ireland especially, gets to the heart of the fact that Ireland is a country that people seem to be constantly leaving, usually not voluntarily, but either because they were physically forced or because they had to leave to earn a living. 'Diamond Mountain' is a wrenching song that expresses the grief and longing of a people forced to leave their homeland. "It's unusual in that it's not a song that's born out of any huge personal emotional difficulty or anything like that," said Bloom. "It's a song that came about after physically being on the mountain. So it is a very physical song. Diamond Mountain is a real place. It's the most westerly of the 12 Pins in Connemara. You're on top of this hill and behind you are the other 11 mountains and on the other side are the Aran Islands and the ocean and the next stop is America. It's in an area where a lot of people emigrated from over the last 150 years. There's a dual thing going on in this area of a great sense of desolation and of loss and of almost a bleeding of people, but also there's an incredible sense of permanency from this amazing mountain."

While the subject of leaving and longing can get very depressing for anyone with that experience, Bloom sees things in Ireland looking up. 'Freedom Song' reflects the thought that perhaps there are some positive things happening, especially where more and more women are assuming positions of power, both in the States and in Ireland. Impressed by the number of women getting elected to office in the U.S. and the fact that Ireland's president is a woman, Bloom wrote this song to try and distill these feelings into a concise song that uses Rosa Parks and Nan Joyce as focal points and symbols of things even more universal.

In fact one of his songs speaks to people who can't easily accept things the way they are. 'Right Here, Right Now' is his "carpe diem" song of sorts. "I think that everybody arrives at a point in relationships with people where they get engrossed in analysis. I have this great phrase that says that 'analysis is paralysis.' There are certain things that just can't be analyzed. It's so easy sometimes to forget just what we have; to lose touch with the simplicity of good health, a roof over our head, a bed to sleep in, food in stomach. These kind of basic things that we just lose touch with sometimes. Sometimes I get really frustrated when I'm in the company of people who are just constantly analyzing and studying and analyzing and intellectualizing and I just want to shake them and go 'Live now. Today. Now. This is it.' It was one of those moments when the song just sort of exploded."

He shows a similar attitude in a stance he and many others have taken concerning an area in the Burren, County Clare, but this time it's an interpretation of the environment and not a song. The Irish government wants to build an interpretive center on a piece of land that Bloom and many others feel needs no explanation. The movement to stop the center spawned an album, including a song, ('The Fertile Rock') which Bloom recorded for Turf. Bloom was given a tour of the area at the foot of Mullaghmore Mountain several years ago by P.J. Curtis, an Irish musician/producer and one of the leaders of the movement. "He didn't even actually have to explain it. He talks so passionately about it really affected me. When you're in this place you realize two things. One, how precious it is in itself, and two, how precious the silence is there. It's a very unique place and very magical place. There's just no need to build something in the heart of it that interprets what's going on around it. I just believe that there are certain places in the world that should be hard to get to. People should really want to go there badly enough that they have to make an effort. It's this conflict between the people who want the tourist dollar and the people who want to preserve something that's precious that's been there for thousands of years. Like other songs, when I sing it in America or Australia, it tugs at something in every heart because its a universal problem."

Realizing the power that music has for many people, Bloom also recognizes it in his own life. Were it not for performers like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Bloom may never have found the inspiration to play himself. He continues to look to other musicians today for renewed inspiration, claiming Chet Baker as a current one along with some of the rap and hip hop groups. Mitchell was an obvious influence and her Blue album affected his musical journey. His song 'To Begin To', is a tribute to Mitchell, whom Bloom has never met...

Denise Sofranko
www.futuris.net/linen/feature/54luka.html

Miami New Times - 14 September 1994

Luka Bloom - Turf
(Reprise)

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Irish folkie Luka Bloom has never been swayed by the prospect of commercial success, and his latest album erves as a tribute to his eloquence and integrity. Recorded live, relying solely on his heartfelt vocals and a lone acoustic guitar, these thirteen songs ring with rare passion and purpose. Perhaps it's part of a trend. With the recent releases of Johnny Cash's American Recordings and two back-to-the-basics albums by Bob Dylan, it's time to accept the notion that no amount of studio wizardry can take the place of great songs well sung.

In this case, that's obvious from the outset, with Bloom belting out such beautiful ballads as 'Diamond Mountain', 'To Begin To' and 'Freedom Song'. He serves up a stirring, sensual set, one that is, by turns, impassioned and introspective. However, despite its mellow mood, the music often proves quite compelling, particularly in the case of 'Right Here, Right Now' and 'Holding Back the River', where Bloom's evocative execution becomes a riveting revelation. Okay, so Bloom may never become a champion on the charts. Here, on his 'Turf', only the music matters.

Lee "Train" Zimmerman
www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1994-09-14/music.html

Consumable Online

TOP 10 LIST - Reto Koradi, Switzerland
Katell Keineg, Neil Young, Pulp, David Byrne, Luka Bloom, Blur, Elvis Costello, Stiltstkin, Tori Amos, Levellers

5. Luka Bloom - Turf (Warner)
It takes courage to follow up a successful album with such a slow, emotional one. But it's so beautiful that it almost makes me cry.

Reto Koradi
www.westnet.com/consumable/1994/12.19/topreto.html

The Irish Post (UK) - 12 August 2014

The 10 Irish records that captured the mood of a nation

5. Turf - Luka Bloom
(1994)

Having signed to a Reprise / Warner Bros, New York-based Kildare man Luka Bloom (that’s Barry Moore to the taxman) crafted a collection of songs that, although somewhat overproduced, gave a voice to US-based Irish immigrants in the ’80s and ’90s.

Like any number of songs about travelling or emigration, sea imagery features strongly in Bloom’s songs. It’s there in 'Diamond Mountain' - "The cruel sea calls the unwilling traveller/ Who would look for the road to survival" - and in the excellent 'Sunny Sailor Boy', penned by Waterboys legend Mike Scott, which finds the singer gazing "Over the western sea / startled and struck, / frightened to look / when a mermaid called to me".

Elsewhere, 'To Begin To' finds Bloom at his wanderlust best, starting out in Prosperous in 1972, Paris, Amsterdam and, finally, California, all in search of songs.

Philip Cummins
irishpost.co.uk/10-irish-records-captured-mood-nation