Journalist Covers Growing Music Festival

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., July 9 /PRNewswire/ — MerleFest 2009, a popular music festival, is growing and was featured in coverage by N.C. journalist Tim Bullard in the July issue of RELIX (http://www.relix.com) magazine, circulation 100,000.

The article included an interview with Peter Rowan, plus a photograph of California native Odessa Jorgensen of Bearfoot.

Bullard, 53, is a native of Laurinburg, N.C. lives in Winston-Salem and has a weekly tech column in the North Myrtle Beach Times and Loris Times in South Carolina. He is an Eagle Scout and was featured in “Press Clips” in Village Voice for writing a controversial expose on a famous S.C. bordello, a piece that earned him commendation from the S.C. Senate and S.C. House for investigative reporting.

Bullard has written a book manuscript he is trying to market to an agent or publisher in New York on the events before and after that article. His online work is at www.timbullard.com. He has written for PLANNING magazine, ARMY magazine, S.C. Wildlife magazine, Our State North Carolina magazine on the John Blue Festival in Laurinburg and Sandlapper magazine on the SOS Spring Safari beach music festival.

MerleFest is a music festival founded to honor the late Merle Watson, son of guitarist Doc Watson of Deep Gap, N.C. This year’s festival included Linda Ronstadt, who Bullard interviewed for his column and The Mountain Times of Blowing Rock, N.C.

Ronstadt talked about her trip to Washington with Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis to lobby for more arts education funding. Kentucky bluegrass star Sam Bush was interviewed by Bullard for an article that ran in the Bowling Green Daily News.

Last year Bullard interviewed Marty Stuart, who performed at the festival, which has an estimated $14,775,853 estimated regional economic impact. Bullard used to interview Doc and Merle Watson when he was a reporter at the Watauga Democrat newspaper in Boone.

Bullard was awarded a First Place Spot News Award by the N.C. Press Association at its February Winter Institute for coverage of a tornado in the Clemmons Courier newspaper. He has also won a writing award from the S.C. Press Association. Now he freelances sports features for the Winston-Salem Chronicle.

SOURCE www.TimBullard.com