Head & Heart Luka Bloom

• 1 Head and Heart 03:26
• 2 Banks of the Lee 04:13
• 3 Every Grain of Sand 04:14
• 4 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 03:17
• 5 Give You Wings 05:02
• 6 Gentle on My Mind 03:57
• 7 My Wild Irish Rose 04:14
• 8 Lonesome Robin 04:12
• 9 And I Love You So 04:13
• 10 Liffeyside 03:51
• 11 Danny Boy 03:17
• 12 The Joy of Living 04:16
• Total Runtime 48:12

Info for Head & Heart

With a poet’s heart and a rockster’s soul, Luka Bloom is regarded as one of Ireland’s most respected contemporary folk artists. A master interpreter, Bloom has continued to balance original songs with reinventions of tunes by a diverse range of songwriters. On Head and Heart, Bloom continues to shake up the folk genre with clever new arrangements and reinterpretations of 10 well known classics alongside a pair of self-penned gems, accompanied by a Jazz trio.

“Yes I still buy records, and I still love to make them. This little body of work represents a painless process. Completely out of my comfort zone, in a studio never used before; singing with musicians I had never met before; and performing without rehearsal. Six of the 12 tracks here are with The Phil Ware Trio. Singing with them for two days was an unforgettable experience. I love everything about this record. Only two of the songs are my own. ‘Liffeyside’ is a tribute to the town of Newbridge and it’s surrounds, where i grew up. ‘Give you Wings’ is a lament to the tragic loss of life experienced by so many Belgian families when they lost their children in a bus crash in Switzerland in 2012. The rest of the songs are simply songs I loved before i ever sang them.” (Luka Bloom)

“That he scales such emotional heights with just his voice, a guitar and a bagful of heartfelt songs makes Bloom’s achievements even more remarkable.” (Hot Press, Ireland)

"Luka Bloom is mining the space between the notes with increasing precision. In Head & Heart he continues the exploration, in intriguing company. The Phil Ware Trio accompany Bloom, but there’s a disconcerting looseness to the arrangements that misses the chance to fully capitalise on the ensemble’s possibilities. Bloom’s song choices are interesting and at times inspired (his reading of Ewan MacColl’s The Joy of Living is just that: a joy). Others grate against their own timeworn fabric (Danny Boy). His guitar lines breathe fresh life into covers of John Martyn’s Head and Heart and the Keith Jarrett-inspired choice, My Wild Irish Rose. His spirit of adventure is palpable, even if his choices disappoint and his encounter with The Phil Ware Trio might have yielded more, given a longer gestation period." (Siobhan Long, the Irish Times)

Luka Bloom, vocals, guitar
Phil Ware, piano
Dave Redmond, bass
Kevin Brady, drums

Luka Bloom
In 1972 Barry Moore wrote a song called WAVE UP TO THE SHORE. Not his first song, but it had something. He did some gigs, wrote some songs; and in 1987 he boarded a plane for New York, and Luka Bloom was born. Riverside was released in 1990 on REPRISE Records and it was followed by THE ACOUSTIC MOTORBIKE, AND TURF.

During the early 1990s the life of writing, recording and touring took off. The US, Australia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and The UK are frequent destinations for Luka’s songs. As well as his own touring, he has performed at some of the great festivals: Pinkpop (Holland); Roskilde (Denmark), Torhout\Werchter (Belgium), Newport Folk Festival (US) Byron Blues Festival(Australia), Glastonbury and Cambridge, (UK). And most of all, he regularly sings all over the island of Ireland, where he lives in County Clare.

This album contains no booklet.