Theo Bleckmann: Hello Earth!

"On a Thursday evening in January the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center was packed — many were turned away at the door — for a rare performance of Kate Bush’s music. It was a big deal for fans of that reclusive British art-rock singer. Despite releasing records more or less steadily over the years, Ms. Bush has never performed a concert in the United States. And she hasn’t toured anywhere, singing in public only rarely since a one-month string of European shows in 1979. Ms. Bush was not involved with the Lincoln Center performance. Her songs were sung by Theo Bleckmann, a 45-year-old German-born singer who lives in New York. He is little known outside experimental-music circles, although that may be about to change. ... If Ms. Bush’s lush recordings are like Georgia O’Keeffe canvases, Mr. Bleckmann’s vivid readings are like charcoal sketches: where Ms. Bush’s are layered, impressionistic and personal, his are lean, yet strikingly true to the originals’ form and feel. A studio recording of Mr. Bleckmann’s versions, 'Hello Earth: The Music of Kate Bush' (Winter & Winter), was issued last month" (Will Hermes, "A Singer of Art-Rock and Bach (He's a Yodeler, Too)," New York Times, 4/4/12).

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