oren bloedow born july 3 1965 in new york city is an american singer guitarist and composer he founded the band elysian fields in 1995 with jennifer charleshis father jerry bloedow b 1928 is a playwright poet and film editor whose theater the hardware poets playhouse was a fixture in the new york avantegarde scene in the 1950s and early 1960sorens first serious musical affiliations were with phillip johnston bobby previte and wayne horvitz all of whom worked with him in bobby radcliffs blues band in the 1980s with radcliff oren backed up dr john otis rush and johnny copeland also paul butterfield shortly before he died another close collaboration was with underground guitarist ron anderson later of san franciscos the molecules in 1985 a friend of rons introduced oren to 101 crustaceans whose leader ed pastorini is orens oldest continuing musical associate and was later a member of elysian fields oren consistently names ed pastorini as his favorite musical artisthe attended new england conservatory in 198788 and on returning started gigging frequently at the knitting factory on houston st previte horvitz and johnston were all playing there and so were many musicians oren came to play with like samm bennett the jazz passengers marc ribot bosho gary lucas and innumerable othersit was here in 1990 that oren met jennifer and they began working together soon afterwards during the nineties oren made a couple of solo records for the knitting factory label one featuring medeski martin and wood toured and recorded as a member of the lounge lizards for whom he played bass as well as many other groups and projectsfrom the nineties to the present he continues to be a highly in demand player having toured recorded andor played with chocolate genius lizz wright meshell ndegeocello martha wainwright and yerba buena either on bass or guitar besides orens solo work and work with elysian fields he also continues his longterm association with ed pastorini and 101 crustaceansanother outlet for orens music and one that also features jennifer charles is the sephardic diaspora project la mar enfortuna who have played in a variety of prestigious fundedarts environments including the jewish culture festival in krakw where they performed for 20000 peoplecareer highlights for oren include being named artist of the year by greil marcus in 2004 musical directing the randy newman tribute at uclas royce hall for impresario hal willner performing with lou reed emmylou harris steve earle and once with bruce springsteen at carnegie hall