Do me a favour. If, on your travels through thrift stores and flea markets in the States or charity shops and car-boot sales in the UK, you happen to stumble upon a reasonably priced LP by Kath Bloom and Loren MazzaCane Connors (any one of 'em), please clutch it close to your chest, hand over the necessary spondoolicks to the cashier, run home and contact me immediately - I'll see you right. Folk singer/songwriter Bloom and outsider guitarist Connors released half a dozen LPs together between 1981 and 1984, each in minutely limited quantities. I held one of those precious records in my sweaty hands once, about 15 years ago while in New York, and it was priced at over $200 then. These days, original releases from their slim catalogue turn up now and again on popular auction sites and can still command three figure sums, despite a couple of CD reissues in the intervening years.
The music Bloom and Connors made together was a frail avant-garde-freak-folk, breathtaking in its intimacy. If you know one song by Kath Bloom, it'll be the wonderful 'Come Here', which featured prominently in the 1995 film, 'Before Sunrise'. 'Come Here' was re-recorded for the film by Kath, following a long period spent away from the music scene, raising her family. The original appeared on 'Moonlight', her final collaboration with Connors in 1984. Compare and contrast the two versions.
The story of this great song doesn't quite end there though. There exists an even earlier distant cousin to 'Come Here', entitled 'Come Here My Sweetest One'. It isn't the same song, though there are obvious themes that link the two. It's a thing of desolate beauty.
