Diane Cluck, Kath Bloom, and Karl Blau

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Diane Cluck is a singer-songwriter of intuitive folk music. Her vocal style has been noted for its distinctly clipped, glottal beauty, described as “an unlikely mix of Aaron Neville, the Baka people, and Joni Mitchell… unaffected yet unusual.” Diane contributed to New York’s burgeoning Antifolk scene in the early 2000s alongside artists such as Jeffrey Lewis, Adam Green, and Kimya Dawson. She’s traded harmonies and toured with CocoRosie and shared stages with a wonderful diversity of artists including The National, Regina Spektor, Yoko Ono, John Zorn, My Brightest Diamond, Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster, Cass McCombs, and Daniel Johnston. Musicians such as Laura Marling, Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), and Sharon Van Etten have all cited Diane’s work as an influence. 

Born to a musical family, Kath Bloom moved through an early life absorbed and in love with the 60s/70s sea change of musical expression, into developing of her own singular voice that would age to cast a wide net of influence. Her prolific relationship with Loren Mazzacane Connors in the 80s produced a body of work held sacrosanct by generations of avant-folk luminaries. In 2007, Chapter Music released a tribute album to her songs from that time recorded by Bill Callahan, Meg Baird, Mark Kozelek and others, and her song “Come Here” was featured memorably in Richard Linklater’s 1995 film “Before Sunrise”.

Bella Union recording artist Karl Blau is one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation, with 25 years of shows (over 50 solo releases and well up over 1,000 shows) under his belt. For three years now, he has called Philly home base. This July, Blau traveled back to his hometown of Anacortes to make a record with pedal steel and electric organ accompaniment he is calling “Scream Time”. It features some of his fan-loved tunes yet to be recorded like “Gray Area” and “The Reins.”  Though he and everyone else have not been playing a ton of shows in the past two years, his recording pace has not slowed, putting out 6 new releases including a children’s album, a doom album, and two live albums through his own personal distribution channel on his Bandcamp page. Since the pandemic, Karl has been volunteering to create and help organize more free fridge/pantries in his neighborhood and generally pitching in on food distribution. The music he is writing lately is exploring that perspective of working in the gap, questioning knee-jerk power structure, and themes of working towards cultural awareness.

Cover image: Diane Cluck in NYC. Photo by John Rogers. (Flickr)

Related Media

Diane Cluck: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (YouTube)

Live Lunch Break: Kath Bloom — Kath Bloom performs at The Telegraph in New London, CT as part of the Live Lunch Break music series. (YouTube)

Karl Blau – When I Catch the Reins — performed live for an audience of zero, in an abandoned amphitheater somewhere on the East Coast. (YouTube)