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Luka back in Bloom with new tour

An interview with Luka Bloom

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Luka Bloom

Luka Bloom returns to the U.S. in a few weeks to support his new CD, “Eleven Songs.”

In recent years, a new album meant a new Bloom for fans to inspect and embrace. His “Before Sleep Comes” album saw the artist abandon his rapid fire strumming in favor of Spanish lullabies, while “Innocence” couched his Irish brogue in Middle Eastern and Latin flourishes. Last year’s “Tribe” found Christy Moore’s kid brother playing around with electronica.

“Eleven Songs” continues in that tradition of reinvention, with brushed drums, fluid fretless bass trills and flamenco style guitar picking that creates a distinct Latin jazz vibe.

When asked about the employment of various textures, Bloom shrugs off the suggestion that he goes from style to style.

“I never made a conscious decision to make a jazzier album,” he says. “The decision was to invite great players into a great studio with great old microphones, and a great live room and to see where the songs could take us in the course of eight days.

“I write the songs as I feel them, then when it comes to the record, I simply ask the question, 'What does this song need?’”

In trying to find what the song needs, Bloom stretches the elasticity of his songs on “Eleven Songs” in the process. Over brushed drums, fluid fretless bass trills and flamenco style guitar picking that creates a distinct Latin jazz vibe, he sings on “There Is a Time” to a friend stuck in his ways, “Are you being right my friend/at the end of your day alone/in the wars you wage with no one/there is a time we must fight for our lives/there is a time we can see black from white,” before encouraging him to “open the window and let the breeze blow.”

“Fire” takes Bloom back to his coffeehouse days in lower Manhattan, churning a blistering social commentary over a forcefully strummed guitar.

“We know we were lied to for another stupid war/living in your headphones, can you hear your dreams/give me some new ideas/everyone has gone online where nothing is real,” he sneers on the track.

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Light That Shines in You” is a gorgeous, epic tune, with strings, choir and galloping piano that calls to mind the best bits of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks.” Bloom says on his website that the song was inspired by a need for community in the face of the tough times we face today.

“There is such a window world for goodness, for community, for sharing, for simplicity, for kindness,” he writes. “And this song is a call to people, to reach inside and be aware of the power in each one of us to do good, for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for our villages and towns, and ultimately, for our earth.”

See more: irish entertainment, ireland entertainment, irish folk music, irish music, luka bloom

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