THURSDAY 21st August 2008
Times : 8pm
Tickets : £10 / £24 three-day pass
"One of the most beautiful singers ever. Heartbreaking." - Devendra Banhart
"I consider myself her biggest fan." - Joesphine Foster
Connecticut avant-folk legend Kath Bloom is heading to the UK for the very first time to play three special dates at Cafe Oto. With longtime collaborator Tom Hanford, whom she met, along with experimental guitar legend Loren Mazzacane Connors, in 1976, Kath will play songs from her brand new album Terror, as well as selected songs from the new reissues of her revered early 80s albums with Connors.
The daughter of world-renowned oboist Robert Bloom, Kath was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, where she trained as a cellist. However, Kath met avant-garde guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors in 1976 and teamed up with him for a series of now highly sought-after recordings of traditional blues songs and Bloom's fragile, beautiful originals. Some records were released in editions of as few as fifty, most no more than 300 copies, until the duo released their swansong Moonlight in 1984.
After a period of child-rearing, family life and daily financial struggle, Kath began to return to the studio in the 1990s. These new songs, recorded in friends' lounge rooms or cut-rate studios, reveal a mother-of-three songwriter as accomplished and affecting as any of her more acclaimed colleagues such as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch or Hazel Dickens.
In the mid-nineties US director Richard Linklater stumbled across her music and used the song Come Here in Before Sunrise, but despite an initial flurry of interest, little came of the exposure. Kath's album Finally, released on Chapter Music in 2006, is the first record she has put out since 1984, aside from her own self-released CD-Rs and cassettes.
Now Kath plays with her band Love At Work, including longtime collaborator Tom Hanford and husband Stan Bronski.
We are delighted to have Kath play at Café Oto on three consecutive nights as part of our residency programme. This is a rare chance to see a true legend play in a small intimate setting. Tickets are limited and advance booking is strongly recommended.
TOM HANFORD
Tom Hanford is a visual artist, musician, children's performer and a teacher.Born in Connecticut in 1952, Tom studied painting and sculpture and in the 1980s he created a number of stage sets for small scale theater pieces including "The Heavy Anchor" byEnglish playwright, Steve Bellwood and "A Song on The Harp" by Loren Mazzacane who has since garnered great recognition as a guitarist.
In the early 1980s he collaborated with Kath Bloom and Loren Mazzacane on the album, "Hanford, Bloom, and Mazzacane" which was highly praised by reknowned critic Nat Hentoff. The trio appeared at a number of venues including the legendary Greenwich Village club, Folk City.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s,Tom was a regularlyfeatured performer at The Village Gate in New York City. He has made two solo recordings."If You Would Be Mine" is an album of original songs. "Musical Menagerie" is a collection of animal songs for children.
Currently he is working on new CD, "Fiddle Dee Dee, Children's Folk Songs of Old New England" and performs with Kath Bloom, Fran Patnaude and Stan Bronsky in the "Love at Work" band which has released three CDs.
Tom lives in Goshen, CT with four cats and a broken tractor.
SHARRON KRAUS
Sharron Kraus creates music rooted in the folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her work is characterized by rich vocals, haunting banjo and fine acoustic guitar. Her live performances are stark, compelling, and delicate. As with her music, her performance continues the tradition of the balladeer bringing tales of terror, sadness and joy.
C JOYNES
English acoustic guitarist C Joynes, a resident of Cambridge, uses a heavy thumb-led finger-picking technique that harks back to traditional country-blues and early ragtime, however, he uses this technique to explore alternative melodic traditions: the English folk-tune; North and West African music; elements of classical Indian music; proto-minimalist and impressionist musics from the European classical tradition. His approach to the recording and compositional process contains a subtle and unassuming experimentation, at times including collaged fragments, field recordings, processing, en-plein-air recordings, and cut-and-paste.
(Rhodri Davies)
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