It’s hard to pick just one song by songwriter Kath Bloom, but here is one to get you started “It’s Just a Dream”.

Lucky for us she has countless songs, many are still unrecorded, while her first album was released in 1981 with guitarist Loren Connors, she is just as prolific and vibrant today! She is probably most known for her song “Come Here” that appeared in the film “Before Sunrise.” After decades of releasing music, she has recently toured Japan, UK, and Australia for the first time. Her songs have been covered by some very influential songwriters such as Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters) who has since released some of her recent albums on his Caldo Verde label. Bill Callahan, Josephine Foster, and Devendra Banhart have also recorded her songs. I encourage you to learn one!.

I first met Kath when we played a show at a Pizza/Music Venue in New Haven, CT near where I grew up. All of my friends in the local music scene told me I had to meet her. If you know Kath just for her music, which teeters lovingly between hope and melancholy, she is very much the same in real life. She also trains horses with behavioral issues, teaches children music, loves dogs, and loves to dance. She loves to play music with other musicians so I would go to her house where we would eat pizza, trade songs, and she even played recorder on my song “Just Because.” I was lucky enough to go on a tour with her in the UK with one show in Madrid where I was the driver, guitarist, opening act and backup singer. I remember her first show in Madrid on the rooftop of a museum where there was a full audience and she stayed to talk to everyone after the show. Then we stayed up pretty late afterwards enjoying talking with people in the streets. It is through her, I learned how gratitude and connection with people can sustain you through life.

I look up to Kath for her talent, and beautiful music, but mostly for her perseverance. It was through working with her I realized that music is a lifetime pursuit through the ups and downs of life/career/heartbreak you never know when or how your songs will touch people, and when opportunities will present themselves. I was recently on tour in Sweden and listened to her for a few hours in my headphones on a lonely rainy day while I was travelling on a train to Gothenburg, and then I got to visit her when I was home for the holidays. There is something about Kath Bloom and her music that gives you a hug in that deep lost place in your heart that you should never give up. She gives good hugs in real life too.

Brad- This Frontier Needs Heroes