D.C. Bloom has long had his way with words. Well before he ever wrote his first song, D.C. was turning phrases and writing speeches for folks like the director of the FBI, Fortune 50 CEOs, a failed candidate for governor of Massachusetts and myriad other muckety-mucks. But after attending a songwriting workshop at the Kerrville Folk Festival, D.C. wrote a song a week for two years running, rising at 5 a.m. before heading off to his day job as a wordsmith to captains of industry and heads of government bureaucracies. The professional speechwriter was slowly becoming a bona fide singer/songwriter. Besides, the witty Bloom wordplay and his slightly skewed quirkiness weren’t always fully appreciated by his buttoned down clients. “You can only cast your proverbial pearls before those proverbial swine for so long,” D.C. says. “The natural progression seemed to be to put chords to my stuff and take the stage myself.” That’s made Bloom a bit of a late bloomer on the Texas music scene, but he’s more than making up for lost time. Since landing in Austin in 2009, the Ohio native has released two full-length CDs (Simpler Times A-Wastin’ and New Man) and one five-song EP (Cinco de Star-Oh!). Fueled by a successful Kickstarter campaign, D.C. is completing a new album (The Rest is Commentary) set for a Summer 2014 launch. A song from the this project, “The Key of You and Me,” recently earned an honorable mention at the 2014 Woody Guthrie Festival songwriting contest. Along the way, he’s worked with some of Central Texas’ best musicians, including Terri Hendrix, Warren Hood, Barbara Nesbitt (The Whiskey Sisters), and Leeann Atherton. He hosts a popular weekly Songwriters in the Round Series every Sunday night at South Austin’s Whip In. Bloom’s song “The Key of You and Me” The legendary Texas producer and guitar slinger, Lloyd Maines, sings D.C.’s praises, noting that “his songs have an intelligent cutting edge, from outrageously clever to poignantly thought provoking.” The Americana Music Times echoed those sentiments, heralding Bloom’s “beautifully constructed, poignant odes to the human condition.” Austin radio icon Roger Allen, host of KGSR’s popular Lone Star State of Mind show, suggests that Bloom is “lodged somewhere between Robert Earl Keen and Loudon Wainwright III” and adds “D.C. is a little whack, and I like that!” In its review of his latest release, Texas Music Magazine compared D.C.'s musical styling to Kinky Friedman, Al Barlow and the Austin Lounge Lizards. Kinky?! Well, yes … Little wonder, then, that Bloom’s unique way with words sometimes fell on deaf ears in those executive suites and corporate boardrooms. But it sure is a welcome sound in music venues throughout Texas … and in the earbuds of D.C. fans everywhere who have discovered what all those CEOs failed to grasp.