Katherine Bloom is an American singer-songwriter based in Litchfield, Connecticut, whose sad voice often accompanies simple folk melodies.
The daughter of oboist Robert Bloom, Kath grew up in New Haven, where she studied the cello as a child and started playing the guitar when she was a teenager. She collaborated with Bruce Neumann in the early '70s, but it wasn't until she met avant-garde guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors in 1976 that she started recording. Bloom and Connors recorded multiple albums of fragile, simple folk and blues melodies, the majority of which were written by Bloom herself. 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. Director Richard Linklater discovered Bloom's music sometime in the early '90s and subsequently 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 ten years, Come Here: The Florida Years, in 1999.
A tribute album entitled 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 Kath trains horses and plays with her band Love At Work, which includes longtime collaborator Tom Hanford and husband Stan Bronski, offering a musical tour de force of programs for children and adults, as well as playing solo shows in the Northeastern US.
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" EP (with Tom Hanford), Daggett Records, 1981
Pushin' Up Daisies 7" 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
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
Tribute Albums
Loving Takes This Course 2-CD, Chapter Music, 2009
-wikipedia.org