Irish troubadour Luka Bloom is making his way around Australia on what is his 13th tour of the country since first coming here in 1992.
Twenty seven years later, Luka reflects on the instant attraction to Australia and Australian audiences that formed at his first-ever show here.
“My feelings for Australia were mapped out from the very first day I landed in Australia, well not the first day but the very first show, which was at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney and completely packed-out,” Luka recalls.
“The reason it was packed-out was because people had been listening to my songs for about two years before I got to do a show, and when I got here and sang and got the welcome I got, I realised 'wow, here is a nation full of people who truly love live music and truly love when someone makes the effort to travel such a long distance to sing'.”
Since that first show, Luka has been a regular and welcome visitor to our shores, and is adamant he will continue to be for as long as he is able.
“I decided then and there that I would make Australia a priority in my life, so that I would always want to return here as often as possible for as long as possible, and it's never let me down,” he says.
“I've never been disappointed, I've never felt like it's too much hard work or too hot – I never feel any of those things. It literally is like a homecoming for me; it's a home away from home and it will be this way until the end of my days.”
Luka is in Australia until April making stops at Port Fairy and Blue Mountains Folk festivals respectively as well as a number of intimate theatre shows, touring off the back of his 2017 studio album 'Refuge'.
Speaking about the album and how audiences have responded to it, Luka says that because of the stripped-back nature the way the songs were written, 'Refuge' was never going to be a radio smash hit.
“It's interesting in the sense that I deliberately decided to make a record that was very raw, very simple, very sparse, and I wanted to record the songs exactly as I wrote them in the moment I wrote them,” he explains.
“I had no intention of making a record in 2016 but because of stuff like Brexit, Trump and the growing awareness of the problems of climate change, I just felt I needed to go into a quiet place and reflect on all of this, and do something that is a good reflection of the way I feel about what's happening in the world, without being too angry.”
After releasing 25 albums in a period of some 50 years, Luka says that when he comes to Australia there is no set list – he just walks out onstage and sees what happens. “It would be foolish for me to come to Australia only excited about singing songs from the past two years, when I've been coming to Australia since 1992,” he says.
“People have been very kind to return to my shows, so obviously I'm not going to just sing the new songs. I want to sing songs from as far back as we need to go; we'll dig deep into the well.”
Luka Bloom 2019 Tour Dates
Wed 6 Mar - Glasshouse (Port Macquarie)Thu 7 Mar - Lizotte's (Newcastle)
9-10 Mar - Port Fairy Folk Festival
Tue 12 Mar - The Basement (Canberra)
16-17 Mar - Blue Mountains Music Festival
19-20 Mar - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Fri 22 Mar - Milton Theatre (NSW)
Sun 24 Mar - Meeniyan Town Hall (VIC)
Wed 27 Mar - The Spotted Mallard (Melbourne)
28-29 Mar - Caravan Music Club (Melbourne)
Sat 30 Mar - Memo Music Hall (Melbourne)
Wed 3 Apr - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 5 Apr - Charles Hotel (Perth)
