Róisín Meets: Luka Bloom loving life in north Clare

With 22 albums under his belt, Luka Bloom, whose real name is Kevin Barry Moore, is no stranger to life on the road.

The 60-year-old had an early introduction to the music business at age 14 when he went on tour as a support act for his older brother, Christy Moore.

On this week’s podcast, he joined Róisín Ingle to talk about his latest album Frugalisto, which he takes on the road later this year. He also performed three songs live with some special-guest vocals by Róisín on the track Sunny Sailor Boy.

A Kildare native, Bloom moved to the United States to pursue a music career in the 1980s. More recently though he has made Co Clare his home and the landscape has inspired many of the songs on the new album.

“Living in Clare has completely surpassed all my expectations. I love it more than I ever could have imagined and it is the first place that I’ve lived in since I was in Kildare that I would call home,” he said.

The title track on Frugalisto is a tribute to his friend Fergal Smith, an eco-conscious, world-class surfer who he calls “a leading light and inspiring person in my life”.

Bloom also spoke to Róisín about his mother, a pianist and singer herself, who became a widow when he was barely a year old. He says despite being tasked with raising six children on her own, she always made sure that music was a big part of their lives.

“She was a 33-year-old widow in 1956 and still once we all came to about 5 or 6 it was really important to her that we all sang and that we got singing lessons. If there was music to be learned, we were learning it. She was good if we were into sports, she was OK with that, but music and singing were more important to her.”

Luka Bloom begins his first Irish tour in ten years this September.

To listen to the conversation or other episodes of the podcast, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or irishtimes.com