Winter 2012

Here it is a new year, and I'm finally enjoying some downtime in our little village by the Seine after having been on the road more or less continuously from mid-September through just before Christmas AND finishing a new CD all at the same time! The fall schedule alternated European tours as opening act and sideman with my friend and mentor Tom Paxton and solo tours in the U.S., racking up those frequent-flyer miles... September brought my first Irish tour with Tom (I've now performed with him in six countries), visiting Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Donegal and Belfast and seeing lots of the legendary green landscape along the way. Then, after a blitzkrieg visit to the states to master the album and play solo concerts in New York, Maryland and North Carolina, it was off to the U.K. with Tom, playing his timeless songs from London to Edinburgh (and finding time to squeeze in a visit to Stonehenge), then back across the ocean for the annual Christmas tour, which was the wild, glorious, sleep-deprived rolling party that it is every year. So, it's been a great few months, but it's sure nice to be home for a while before hitting the road again in March...

Nevertheless, now that the smoke has cleared, I find myself with a new CD (finally!) and I've got to say, I'm delighted with this one. My continuing explorations into Baroque and Renaissance repertoire have combined with the Irish bardic tradition, and the result is Majesty and Magic, a solo guitar CD devoted to the music of J.S. Bach, John Dowland and Turlough O'Carolan. The CD contains five compositions each by these three mighty composers, and it amazes me how logically and beautifully they flow together, for not really having much in common historically. But that's the nature of genius, I suppose... Anyway, I did my best to do this great music justice, which is about all one can hope for with music at this level. (When I played an advance copy for Tom he said "This might be your best work yet." So I'll just leave it at that – the master has spoken!) You can find Majesty and Magic right here on this site by clicking on "Recordings" to the left, and it'll be showing up on Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes and all the other download sites in just a few more weeks.

And of course it'll be available at all my concerts from now on, which leads us to the CD Release Concert spring tour schedule...I'll be spending the month of March back on the American road celebrating the new CD and playing lots of music from it at every stop, along with the usual rambles through Celtic and Appalachian traditions on guitar, mandolin and cittern. So if you're in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina or Georgia, check the schedule and come by and say hi. (If you're not in any of those states, well, hopefully I'll find my way to you eventually!)

Happy New Year to one and all...see you along the road, Robin

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