Robin Bullock pays tribute to his dear friend, who was a Grammy & Indie Award Winner, best known for his lyrical and powerful finger style acoustic guitar playing.

Al Petteway was a Grammy-Winning guitarist who played nearly every type of popular, folk and classical music - as a soloist, as part of an ensemble, and as an onstage accompanist. He established a reputation as a world-class sideman by playing and recording with Jethro Burns, Peter Rowan, Tom Paxton, Jonathan Edwards, Cheryl Wheeler, Debi Smith, David Wilcox, Maggie Sansone, Bonnie Rideout and many more. Though his primary instrument has always been the guitar, he also studied lute, string bass, percussion and music composition. His compositions for acoustic fingerstyle guitar were strongly influenced by his love of Celtic music and his own roots in folk, rock and blues. He performed as a solo guitarist and with his wife Amy White as a duo, playing original and traditional music on acoustic instruments including guitar, banjo, mandolin, harp, piano, and percussion.

Hailed as a “Celtic guitar god” by Baltimore City Paper and “one of the best folk instrumentalists in the business” by Sing Out! Magazine, Robin Bullock is one of the preeminent acoustic music masters of our time. His virtuosity on guitar, cittern and mandolin blends the ancient melodies of the Celtic lands, their vigorous American descendants, and the masterworks of the Baroque and Renaissance eras 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 the timeless compositions of Bach, Dowland and Francesco da Milano 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 an unforgettable journey into the deep heart’s core and through the music of the spheres.