Robin Bullock in concert at The Black Mountain Center for the Arts, April 12

Press release

The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is proud to present Robin Bullock in concert on Saturday April 12 at 7:30 pm. Located at 225 W. State Street, the intimate listening room of the Arts Center will offer wonderful acoustics to hear Bullock who has been called “the Celtic guitar god.” Tickets for the concert are $20. There will be a reception with the musician following the concert.

Bullock is calling this special concert his “Homecoming” since relocating to Black Mountain after living in Paris for 12 years. He had been commuting to the area twice a year to perform at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College and Swannanoa Solstice at Diana Wortham Theater in Asheville. The multi-instrumentalist will be returning to the Arts Center after a guest appearance during the Acoustic Corner Instructor’s Concert here last November. During that appearance he was so smitten with the “sound” of the room he asked to perform a concert, “in celebration of my new home.” The solo show will be a departure from the tour of Great Britain he will be concluding in March with Janis Ian and Tom Paxton.

Bullock is a prolific composer, whose virtuosity on guitar, cittern and mandolin blends the ancient melodies of the Celtic lands and their vigorous Appalachian descendants into one powerful musical vision. The 17th-century harp tunes of legendary Irish bard Turlough O’Carolan, the spirited jigs and reels of rural Ireland, the haunting ballads of the southern Appalachians and evocative original compositions all find a musical common ground in Robin’s music, where lightning-fast fingerwork one moment is perfectly balanced with tender, quiet intimacy the next. A warm, friendly presence onstage, Robin effortlessly creates a magical world for the audience with his multi-instrumental wizardry, taking them on a journey to the heart and soul of Celtic and American traditions.

Bullock’s solo career has won him three Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE Awards, a Governor’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and a feature broadcast on National Public Radio’s hugely popular Celtic music program “The Thistle and Shamrock.” His recorded work includes eight critically acclaimed solo CDs and numerous collaborations, the most recent of which, Celtic Guitar Summit with California fingerstylist Steve Baughman, was honored by Acoustic Guitar Magazine with an “Editor’s Pick” as one of the top CDs of 2003. For more insight into the musician, listen to Bullock’s April 11th interview on WCQS with Dick Kowal on Friday at 2pm, then come to the concert at the Arts Center on the following night. For more information go to BlackMountainArts.org.