Kath Bloom

Katherine Bloom is an American folk songwriter based in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Biography

The daughter of oboist Robert Bloom, Bloom grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied the cello as a child and started playing the guitar when she was a teenager.

Bloom collaborated with Bruce Neumann in the early 1970s, and started to record music with avant-garde guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors in 1976. Bloom and Connors recorded multiple albums of fragile, simple folk and blues melodies, the majority of which were written by Bloom. She cites Robert Johnson and Lightnin' Hopkins as inspiration in this period. Their collaboration ended in 1984 with the release of their final album ''Moonlight'', of which only 300 copies were pressed.

Bloom stopped recording new material soon after her collaboration with Connors ended, and a period of financial hardship followed. A single mother, Bloom focused on raising her children, rarely playing shows outside of New Haven. She began writing songs and recording again in the early 1990s. According to a 2016 interview, Bloom first started touring in 2009, and she enjoys performing now more than she did earlier in her career.

Film director Richard Linklater was introduced to Bloom's music through his friend and fellow director Caveh Zahedi sometime in the early 1990s and featured her song "Come Here" in his 1995 film '' Before Sunrise''. Encouraged by Linklater's interest in her music, Bloom started writing new songs and released her first album in over 10 years, titled ''Come Here: The Florida Years'', in 1999.

A tribute album titled ''Loving Takes This Course'' was released in 2009 and features artists such as Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan, Mark Kozelek, The Dodos, and Scout Niblett.

Presently Bloom trains donkeys and plays with her band Love at Work, which includes longtime collaborator Tom Hanford and husband Stan Bronski, offering a musical programs for children and adults as well as playing solo shows in the Northeastern U.S. Bloom has been working with children since 1989. She lives in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Discography

; With Loren Mazzacane
* ''Gifts'' LP, Daggett Records, 1978
* ''Fields'' LP, Daggett Records, 1978
* ''Hanford, Bloom And Mazzacane'' LP (with Tom Hanford), Daggett Records, 1981
* ''Listen to the Blues'' 7-inch EP (with Tom Hanford), Daggett Records, 1981
* ''Pushin' Up Daisies'' 7-inch EP, Daggett Records, 1982
* Round His Shoulders Gonna Be A Rainbow'' LP, Daggett Records, 1982
* ''Sing the Children Over'' LP, Ambiguous Records, 1982
* ''Guitar Pieces'' cassette, Daggett Records, 1983
* ''Sand in My Shoe'' LP, St. Joan Records, 1983
* ''Restless Faithful Desperate'' LP, St. Joan Records, 1984
* ''Moonlight'' LP, St. Joan Records, 1984

; Solo
* ''Come Here: The Florida Years'' CD, self-released, 1999
* ''Terror'' CD, Chapter Music, 2008
* ''Thin Thin Line'' CD, Caldo Verde, 2010
* ''It's Just a Dream'' CD, self-released reissue, 1996, 2011
* ''Here I Am'' CD, Caldo Verde, 2012
* ''Somewhere in California'' CD, Vow Records, 2014
* ''Pass Through Here'' CD, Chapter Music, 2015
* ''This Dream of Life'' CD, Caldo Verde, 2017
* ''Bye Bye These Are The Days'' LP Dear Life Records, 2020

; Compilations
* ''1981-1984'' CD, Megalon Records, 2000
* ''Finally'' CD, Chapter Music, 2006
* ''Sing the Children Over / Sand in My Shoe'' 2-CD, Chapter Music, 2008
* ''Restless Faithful Desperate / Moonlight'' 2-CD, Chapter Music, 2009

; Tribute albums
* ''Loving Takes This Course'' 2-CD, Chapter Music, 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom, Kath
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American women singer-songwriters
People from Litchfield, Connecticut
American folk musicians
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
Musicians from New Haven, Connecticut
21st-century American women
Singer-songwriters from Connecticut