You may have heard one or two of her tracks on a TV show, or seen her in one of her numerous tours, but Friday, Dec. 7 you have the rare opportunity to see the singer/songwriter Camille Bloom in a very intimate setting, and from the trajectory of her career, this may be a rare opportunity.

After establishing herself as a strong local act, Bloom began working on her debut album, living off of credit cards for a year.

"I wish I could say it was a leap of faith - but I was conned out of my job," says Bloom. "I had been playing music for a few years while teaching full time and an investor approached me (with a contract).  But the day we were meeting for her to sign it, she stood me up."  

The former English teacher has since played stages big and small throughout North America and Europe; despite this Bloom remains modest about her achievements, which are numerous. Her songs have been licensed in more than 20 television shows on major network channels, MTV, E! and Oxygen.

"I love listening to film scores and soundtracks as they add so much emotion to the scenes.  I plan to continue writing and placing music in film and television," she says, adding scores has been a long-time goal.

Seattle's Martin Feveyear, who has worked with R.E.M., The Presidents of the United States of America and Brandi Carlile, produced her latest album, Never Out of Time.

"Working with Martin was awesome," says Camille. "He really put his heart into this project and he did his best to allow each song to tell its story."

Never Out of Time offers 11 tales of passion, struggle and inspiration. It should come as no shock that Bloom often provides lectures at schools on subjects ranging from songwriting, to sexual orientation and domestic violence issues, topics that mean something personally to Bloom.

"I really only write from an emotional state. These topics are really personal to me. Some of them are from personal experience, and others are written from the third person perspective," explains Bloom. "In the beginning, I pretty much only wrote from personal experience. But as time has gone by, I have gotten outside of myself to write about things like politics, the environment, etc."

A road warrior at heart, Camille Bloom has completed more than 30 tours throughout the U.S. and Western Europe helping her develop an international fan base that has, at times, put her in the same charts as artists such as Steve Earl and Bob Dylan. When asked about the difference between European and U.S. audiences Camille says, "In Europe, the audiences are much more reserved than in the States.  If the audience in Europe thinks you are funny, you don't necessarily know because they don't often laugh out loud. In the states, people are much more boisterous in letting you know they love you. This is really fun to have the energy return, but it's also more likely to hear someone screaming your name in the middle of my most quiet ballad.  I love both audiences for these reasons."

Now Bloom is bringing her sugarcoated bark percussive guitar work to the Northern Pacific Coffee Co. Friday, which Bloom relishes.

"I love small audiences because I get a chance to connect with nearly everyone in the room. I love to tell stories on stage. I love to have a relationship with the audience."

NORTHERN PACIFIC COFFEE CO., FRIDAY, DEC. 7, 8 P.M., $8-$12, 401 GARFIELD ST. S., TACOMA, 253.537.8338