$14.99
For his sixth solo recording, virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Robin Bullock takes a direct approach, casting his spell over the listener with introspective solo performances and stripped-down acoustic ensemble arrangements. The ageless music of the Celtic lands and Appalachia, together with some of Robin's most inspired compositions, create a world of enchantment indeed. Includes concert favorites “First Light in the Mountains,” “Shenandoah,” and Robin's thunderous mandolin tour-de-force “Bonaparte's Retreat.”
1. Westlin Winds
2. Thomas Burke
3. First Light in the Mountains* / The Open Road*
4. Prince William/Now is the Month of Maying
5. Alpine Waltz*
6. Frosty Morning / Santa Anna’s Retreat / Santa Anna’s March
7. Out on the Ocean / The Enchanted Woods* / The Piper in the Forest*
8. Bishop John Hart
9. Seven Swans
10. The Two William Davises / The Bonfire*
11. Coleman’s March / Bonaparte’s Retreat
12. Shenandoah
*RB Originals
All instruments played by Robin Bullock
1. Westlin Winds
Solo guitar
The tune to a song by Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. The lyrics are an odd mix of love song, environmental anthem and paean to hunting, so perhaps it’s just as well to play it as an instrumental…
2. Thomas Burke
Solo guitar
A composition of Ireland’s greatest bard, the blind harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738). I was first alerted to the power of this piece through harper Patrick Ball’s recording on his album O’Carolan’s Dream.
3. First Light in the Mountains / The Open Road Solo piano
A pair of waltzes that I composed (or more accurately, that dropped into my head and were insistent that I pull off the road and write them down) on a drive across Pennsylvania through the Allegheny Mountains. I recorded these tunes in 1998 with the trio Greenfire on the CD Greenfire: A Celtic String Ensemble, but have always wanted to go back and revisit them solo.
4. Prince William / Now is the Month of Maying Solo guitar
The first tune is a New England contra dance tune that I’ve slowed down considerably, inspired by the hammered dulcimer rendition by my good friend Walt Michael. I follow it with a guitar setting of an English madrigal composed by Thomas Morley (1557-1602). Fa la la la la la la.
5. Alpine Waltz
Guitar, 12-string guitar, bass guitar
My wife Jodi and I spent the first night of our honeymoon in the storybook-like Blue Ridge Mountain town of Little Switzerland, North Carolina. This one is for the folks there, and especially at the Alpine Inn.
6. Frosty Morning / Santa Anna’s Retreat / Santa Anna’s March Mandolin, two guitars
Some Appalachian old-time music, a Celtic-rooted tradition I dearly love. I first heard “Frosty Morning” frailed beautifully on 5-string banjo by the late Merle Watson, then encountered it again recording with flutist Chris Norman on his CD Man With the Wooden Flute. “Santa Anna’s Retreat” is from the apparently inexhaustible repertoire of Norman Blake, one of my all-time musical heroes. “Santa Anna’s March” is also known in old-time music circles as “Johnnie Cope,” supporting my suspicion that the tune’s origins are Scottish: John Cope was the English general said to have ignominiously fled the Battle of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, during the 1745 rebellion.
7. Out on the Ocean / The Enchanted Woods / The Piper in the Forest Cittern, guitar, mandolin, bass guitar
A set of three jigs starting with a standard of the traditional Irish session repertoire. I wrote the next two in a state somewhere between sleep and waking during a tour of Germany in the fall of 2004.
8. Bishop John Hart
Solo guitar
Another composition of Turlough O’Carolan, this one in honor of a Catholic bishop of his acquaintance – showing great courage on Carolan’s part, as the Catholic religion was outlawed in Ireland at that time.
9. Seven Swans
Solo piano
A composition for solo guitar by another longtime friend, Al Petteway. His version appears on his CD The Waters and the Wild, which is entirely devoted to original pieces inspired by the Chesapeake Bay and other mid-Atlantic waterways. Not wanting to simply reproduce what he did (since I couldn’t possibly improve on it anyway), I’ve adapted it for solo piano instead. The title was inspired partly by the swans of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and partly by the tune’s meter of 7/8.
10. The Two William Davises / The Bonfire Three guitars
The first tune is variously attributed to Carolan or to his predecessor Thomas Connellan. The lyrics, in Gaelic, humorously commemorate a miserly father and his generous son. The second is an original that, in its minor-key minimalism, came out sounding vaguely like the hypnotic dance tunes of Brittany, the Celtic region of western France. I realized somewhat to my surprise that the two sections harmonize each other almost perfectly, so I couldn’t resist overdubbing an additional lead guitar part toward the end to play it as a round.
11. Coleman’s March / Bonaparte’s Retreat Solo mandolin
Two Appalachian fiddle tunes that, again, sound to me as if they have Scottish origins. I learned the first, as did many other musicians, from Vermont old-time fiddler extraordinaire Pete Sutherland. The second is popular throughout the U.S. in many different versions, one of which was borrowed by Aaron Copland for his orchestral piece Rodeo. Fiddlers traditionally play these tunes in the “Dead Man’s Tuning” (DDAD), thus I’ve tuned the mandolin the same way for this set.
12. Shenandoah
Guitar, cittern
The classic American folk song of love and longing. Away, we’re bound away, across the wide Missouri! This version opens with the melody set against a drone, hinting at ancient Celtic roots that it might or might not actually have…
Robin Bullock:
