“I can’t imagine how you can argue with a cat that sounds like a mash up between Tom Waits and Michael Hurley while actually being admired by Butch Hancock. Sure, you’ve got to be a left leaning, freak folk gourmet to fully appreciate it, but have you looked up how many You Tube plays some Tom Waits stuff has? For people that never met a hit they ever liked, this is music right up your alley and right in the pocket. Sure to clear a room from non believers, why would you want them around you anyway? Killer stuff.”
– Chris Spector, Midwest Record
It takes a unique, visionary songwriter to connect the dots between the “darlings of YouTube,” and the annual return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, but Bill Bloomer pulls it off (in “Hard Acts To Follow!), and a whole lot more with the most excellent “Bounty.”
– Don Crow, Don and Sheryl’s Music Blog
I think, though, that Bloomer brings to mind a Tom Waits and Michael Hurley if the two had been fused into a single entity. In other words, growly, boozy melodies combined with lyrics that never put anything quite the way you expect them to. – Jerome Clark, Rambles.net
A previous rodeo star whose career was ended by an injury, though Bloomer only picked up a guitar at age 36, he delivers like a natural troubadour, and is backed up by violins, accordions, and pedal steel, among others, on this poetic and timeless collection of 11 original and compelling tunes. – Tom Haugen, Take Effect Reviews
In the context of a long and successful career as a singer/songwriter in the old school troubadour tradition, it seems counterintuitive to call Bounty a “mature” work, but I will say Bill Bloomer’s latest album is a synthesis of sorts, bringing together the best of his last four albums, including last year’s wonderful fan favorite, Jubilee (2018). Bounty, a double entendre, implying both the price on one’s head and the cornucopia available when one is ready to receive, was chosen, I suspect, purposefully. AND I also suspect that currently Bill Bloomer’s cup runneth over, and he wants his listeners to know that that cup can be accessed by all. – Leanne Tankel, Americana Highways