The cover version is a much maligned artform, and justifiably so. After all, how many times have we heard pub bands performing all manner of unmerciful tortures on truly great songs that did nothing to deserve such a fate. Sometimes though, an artist re-interpreting someone else s song can be a discovery, revealing hidden depths inside both the song and the artist. It is in this light that we must examine Luka Bloom s Keeper Of The Flame, an album of other people s songs. But then again, covering other people s songs is nothing new for Luka Bloom.

Obviously, we would all love that all our own songs to be hits, he smiles, but the reality for me is that, while a lot of people around the world genuinely like my songs, the two songs of mine that have gotten the most airplay were an LL Cool J song ( I Need Love ) and a Mike Scott song ( Sunny Sailor Boy ), and I m perfectly happy about that.
Since I recorded I Need Love way back in 1992, people have been asking me to try a whole album of covers. I woke up in January 2000 and it just seemed like the time to do it.
The choice of songs itself is quite unusual. While there are songs by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley and Tim Hardin, as you might expect, there are also songs penned by U2 ( Bad ), Radiohead ( No Surprises ), The Cure ( In Between Days ) and Abba ( Dancing Queen ).
I ve always hated the idea of labels and categorisation, Luka stresses. It always frustrated me in the eighties that a guy like me would never be heard by anybody under 30 because you re a solo singer-songwriter and kids don t go to folk clubs. That closes off a whole world to people like me and it also closes off a load of songs to kids.
I have always believed that it is possible for a solo artist to sing songs from any area and the only limitations are in people s minds, he observes. So I was literally prepared to try anything. Once I can find some area of magic, whether it be in the lyrics, the chord structure or the flow and the rhythm of the song, then the doors open and I can go in. I found that somewhere in each of these eleven songs.
The unusual song choice was also fuelled by a desire to experiment and to enjoy himself: I had a bit of a bad experience around Salty Heaven, so I needed to have some fun: something that was kind of cleansing; something that involved not taking myself so seriously.
I wondered, considering the fact that our Luka headed to the west of Ireland with hundreds of CDs in tow to learn the songs for this album, surely there must have been a few gems that didn t make it onto the final cut?
It ended up being a surprise and a disappointment to me that there are no Van Morrison songs on the record, he confesses, because I just love the man s work so much. I listened to Astral Weeks with a view to finding a song I could do. I have listened to Astral Weeks about once a month since it came out, but I couldn t bring myself into the songs, which was a bit of a surprise to me. No matter what I learned, I ended up feeling like some gobshite trying to sound like Van Morrison.
Further probing reveals that a Robbie Robertson song called Golden Feather was almost included and that somewhere there exists a recording of Luka Bloom performing The Temptations Just My Imagination .
I don t go looking for cover versions, he muses. They don t come easy to me. I needed to have songs that I could bring together and still sound like a Luka Bloom record, and with each of these songs I was able either to bring something of myself to them or find something of myself in them.
Keeper Of The Flame is Luka s first completely independent release, and is licensed to eight independent labels throughout the world. Mr Bloom is enjoying the sense of freedom and adventure his solo status brings.
I think I realised at the ripe old age of 45 that I am pretty much unmanageable, he admits with a chuckle. I have a very chaotic working life that somehow manages to come together in a strange kind of order, and I like the chaos, the unpredictability and the unstructured nature of it.
There are now two totally separate music worlds, he continues. One is the enormous corporate global world of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and to some extent, people like U2 and Radiohead belong to that world. Then there is another world of individual cottage industries, which was pioneered by people like Ani DiFranco, where people like me function in this crazy way, and that suits me fine.

Keeper Of The Flame is out now
Luka Bloom tours countrywide in February, with dates in Galway, Limerick, Cork, Belfast, Letterkenny and Dublin. See listings for details.