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You are > Home > Luka keeps a place in his heart for Kerry
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
Luka keeps a place in his heart for Kerry
By: Eve Kelliher
EVE KELLIHER talks with Luka Bloom who will play Killarney on Thursday.
NO matter where he wanders, Kerry will always hold a special place in the heart of acclaimed singer-songwriter Luka Bloom, who is headed to Killarney this week, where he plays The Granary on Thursday, February 17.
Indeed, the county is responsible for providing the inspiration for one of his most well-known songs, Acoustic Motorbike.
“It must be about 12 years now since that day I went out for a cycle in Kerry. I don’t know what possessed me but I decided to do the Ring of Kerry.
“It was January and it took me two or three days but it was a fantastic experience. Although it was cold, it was during a freak little sunny spell and was absolutely fantastic. It inspired this little song, which later became the title to an album so I’ll be eternally grateful to Kerry,” Luka told The Kingdom.
The Granary is a venue he is familiar with, since he was among the artists to play there when it originally opened.
“I’ve always had great gigs in Kerry. I’ve been playing in Killarney on a regular basis for 30 years now, everywhere from the INEC to The Laurels and the Danny Mann, so I’ve a long track record in the town.
“I’ve also done performances in Ballyferriter and took part in the Songs From A Room series recorded there. There’s just something about gigs in Kerry.”
The performer, who was brought up in Newbridge, Co Kildare, has been travelling the globe with his ever-growing repertoire for decades.
And Luka finds himself equally at home playing gigantic festival arenas to the smallest pub venues; while the former can pulsate with huge energy, intimate gigs are often more challenging, he says.
“I love the varied tapestry of my musical life. I can find myself going from a big open-air festival in Australia to a club in Kerry,” says the artist.
It was when he headed to the United States in 1987, after working in the music business in Ireland, that Luka, christened Barry Moore, decided to change his name, with “Luka” coming from the Suzanne Vega song My Name Is Luka and James Joyce’s Ulysses provided the inspiration for the surname.
Luka’s 10th album, Innocence, will be released the day after the Killarney gig.
This recording, which features classics such as City of Chicago, celebrates the ordinariness of life. Spirituality is a theme that runs through Innocence, with the title track striking a chord with anyone who harbours memories of incense and a fascination with such rituals as benediction.
“I’m always looking for the spiritual. I’m a lapsed, or recovering Irish Catholic and I don’t know what it is about us, but we’re always searching. I’m not a political songwriter, I don’t write on events of the day, but matters that are spiritual, matters that are ordinary. I feel my brief is to make the ordinary extraordinary,” says Luka.
Innocence also evokes a real sense of place, which it not surprising considering his life has taken him on something of an odyssey both the literal and metaphorical sense of the word.
“I was born and raised in County Kildare and spent years in Dublin, New York, Washington various other cities. For the past two years I’ve been living in County Kildare - writing and recording in my living room,” he says. The rural setting of his present abode his something he relishes, adds Luka.
“I grew up in Newbridge, on the main street of the town. Now, although I am within a short drive of Dublin, my neighbours are cattle, sheep, badgers and foxes. It would probably shock people coming from Kerry that somewhere so close to Dublin can be so rural.”
Luka’s travels have stretched his imagination and Innocence captures that journey with aplomb, displaying the artist’s ear for life’s hidden details.
The opener, Primavera, displays Bloom’s wonderful vocal flexibility as well as giving the listener as glimpse of the contradictions of the ageing process.
It’s probably not surprising that a household that supplied the world with two musicians (Luka’s brother is singer-songwriter Christy Moore) should have been an intensely musical one.
“Growing up there was a lot of music in the family. People always point to Christy but our mother was a wonderful musician. Because our father died when we were very young she consoled herself and us with music.”
James Taylor and Neil Young were early influences on Luka, who rapidly discovered he had a flair for songwriting himself. “From the moment I started playing the guitar I sort of connected with myself. I was writing songs from about the age of 15,” he says.
Influences on his work change with the passing of time, adds Luka who has made no less than three albums in the last two years. “There was a time when I fancied myself as a one-man U2, with this big guitar sound, and me flailing away and screaming at people to listen.”
But, as he says himself, life has taught him to constantly reappraise his work.
“The challenge is never to go into the comfort zone so I don’t fall into traps being bored with myself,” says Luka.
Innocence is a recording he is eager to bring on tour, as he tunes up and gets ready to leave the inspirational songwriting eyrie that is his living room to go on the road.
“It’s just mindblowing to write a song and take it out into the world,” says Luka.
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