Kath Bloom
Not everyone can pick up an instrument and master it, but anyone can hum a tune and create, in their own way, a form of art. These private moments, fleeting and intangible, happen constantly, and folk music and the blues are the closest they come to being caught and preserved. That’s the reason why, more than other genres, they have the power to capture an audience’s heart.
A collaborator decades ago with the experimental guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors, and the daughter of Robert Bloom, a celebrated classical musician, Kath Bloom has long been the gentle soul who dug deeper than anyone before or since, and mined some of the most heartfelt and beautiful roots music.
“I did not pick up a guitar ’til I was 25, I think,” Bloom tells PureHoney. “It was the playing of it that began unlocking my pain, and wonder, and my need to make something simple out of emotional chaos. Once I got going, I was hooked.”
Bloom’s work, lyrically stream of consciousness, relies on her instinctual sense of feeling. She’s been a massage therapist, a horse trainer and a children’s musician — different careers that have helped infuse her music with empathy. As a mother, it only makes sense that she possesses the administrative capabilities to wrangle it all into cohesion. “Besides this being a rich time of women speaking out against being victims of male force and sexual aggression, it’s a time to celebrate the true power of intuition and feeling and nurturing in our lives,” she says. “It is a part of creation.”
Her career, marked by periods of inactivity which helped distance her from the music scene, got a boost after Richard Linklater discovered her music and included “Come Here” in 1995’s “Before Sunrise,” for a new generation of fans.
After a 2009 residency at London’s Café OTO, Bloom’s life changed drastically. Renewed interest fueled her previously lukewarm relationship with live performance, and she now revels in pleasing crowds. “Not only did I discover that people knew my music, but many liked it,” Bloom says. “I love it now. I want to play more and more.”
A tribute album entitled Loving Takes This Course was also released in 2009 and features artists such as Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan, Mark Kozelek, The Dodos, and Scout Niblett.
Kath Bloom, with CHEW and Ella Herrera, performs April 13 at Voltaire in West Palm. ~ Abel Folgar
