Mandolin Mondays #177 w/ Special Guest Robin Bullock
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, May-20-2019 at 7:00am (7540 Views)
This week on Mandolin Mondays, North Carolina Celtic and Classical mandolin sage Robin Bullock plays his rocking cross-tuned arrangement of these old-time tunes on his 1920 Gibson A model mandolin.
Robin got his start as a founding member of the innovative acoustic world-music trio Helicon. Since then, Robin’s solo career has won him three Washington Area Music Association WAMMIE Awards, a Player’s Choice Award from Acoustic Guitar Magazine in the Celtic guitar category, a Governor’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. Now he keeps a rigorous touring and teaching schedule.
His most recent recording is a solo album of the first 3 Bach Cello Suites performed on vintage Gibson mandolins. Its a masterful project that any mandolin player should check out: https://robinbullock.com/product/rob...olin-volume-o/
Here Robing shares a bit about the music and mandolin is this video, "This is a pair of old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes, "Coleman's March" and "Bonaparte's Retreat", played on my 1920 Gibson A (affectionately nicknamed The Feral Cat because its previous owner claims it only purrs when it's in my lap). These tunes are traditionally played with the fiddle retuned to the "Dead Man's Tuning," DDAD low to high, so I retuned the mandolin the same way and discovered that the tuning yields some amazing sounds on mandolin. This arrangement continues to evolve over time - I recorded it on a Weber Beartooth in 2005 on my CD The Enchanted Woods (that track is in the Mandolin Café mp3 library) and it continues to be an audience favorite, so here it is again with the Feral Cat. Honored to be part of Mandolin Mondays - see y'all again soon!"
Be sure to connect with Robin at the following links below for more information about his music:
http://www.robinbullock.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005413455998
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdf...crTD_vSxCrW6Lg
And as always, tune in next week for more Mandolin Mondays! Until then...
Happy Picking!
David