• Luka Bloom
• 8:00pm

ABOUT LUKA BLOOM

Kevin Barry Moore was born in 1955 to Nancy Power and Andy Moore of Newbridge in County Kildare, Ireland. He is the youngest member of the family and has three sisters and two brothers. Music was an intrinsic part of his life growing up. All of the family sing and play, but Barry had his own way and style of making music. From a very early age he was writing songs and honing his skills as a serious guitar player. He first went on tour as the support act to his eldest brother, Christy Moore, in 1969. This was a tour of English folk clubs. He was all of fourteen years of age. From then on Barry spent all of his time writing songs and playing guitar.

Around this time he wrote 'Jenny Of The Sun' and 'Wave Up To The Shore' - which was recorded by Christy in 1976  Bloom was encouraged by his brother, who hired him to play with his groups Planxty and Moving Hearts. Although he recorded three impressive solo albums in the 1970s and '80s, he was unable to the match his brother's success and decided to move to the United States, Before he left the shamrock shore he made a serious decision. New country, new people, new everything - why not a new name? Luka Bloom became a possibility - Luka from the Suzanne Vega song 'My name is Luka' and the Bloom from James Joyce's Ulysses. So on the long journey to New York - let the man tell it! - "EI104 the lovely old jumbo that brought me to America in 1987. Window seat: looking down from 35,000 feet at America, repeating quietly to myself, 'Hi, my name is Luka Bloom. I'd like to play here." By the time he landed in New York - LUKA BLOOM - was born! Now begins some serious work. As he says himself: "I made a conscious decision before I went to America to create a solo performance that would be exciting and relevant to rock audiences. I also decided that I was going to create an audience for myself, without the help of record companies.

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 his 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. After recording three memorable albums for Reprise -- Riverside in 1990, Acoustic Motorbike in 1992, and Turf in 1994 -- Bloom fell victim to a corporate shakeup in 1995.

After this period of relative uneases Luka had returned to his homeland, settling in Dublin. His 1999 album, Salty Heaven, was partly recorded in his cottage home in the village of Birr, and completed at Abbey Road Studios in London. Keeper of the Flame, a collection of covers, arrived in fall 2000, followed by Between the Mountain and the Moon in 2002. He released Amsterdam, his first "live" record, in spring 2003, followed by Before Sleep Comes, a collection of softly played (and sung) meditations on the moments before slumber inspired by a brutal bout with tendinitus. Innocence, released on the Cooking Vinyl label, arrived in 2006.

Eleven Songs followed in 2008.

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. His 2000 album Keeper of the Flame featured covers of tunes by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, U2, ABBA, Radiohead, and Tim Hardin.