Mural, mural on the wall

Art installation recognizing Black Mountain native Roberta Flack completed

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
July 22, 2020

Chapel Hill muralist Scott Nurkin has completed the latest installment in the N.C. Musicians Mural Trail with a piece recognizing Black Mountain native Roberta Flack. The mural can be seen on the north side of Black Mountain Brewing on Broadway Avenue. Fred McCormick

The latest installment of the N.C. Musicians Mural Project can be found in Black Mountain, the birthplace of Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Roberta Flack.

The piece, which was completed July 22 on the north side of Black Mountain Brewing on Broadway Avenue by Chapel Hill muralist Scott Nurkin, is one of several murals recognizing musicians born in the state.

Flack was born in Black Mountain before moving with her family to Virginia at the age of 9. She would go on to become the first solo artist to win a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in consecutive years. She received the honor in 1973 for her hit single “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and again in 1974 for “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” Flack received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

Black Mountain Brewing owner John Richardson launched a fundraising campaign in June to support the project, and the initiative raised $15,000 to pay for the mural in eight days.

The image is based on a 1969 portrait of Flack taken by Jack Robinson.

The Black Mountain mural is the fourth installment of the N.C. Musicians Mural Project. Nurkin completed a mural of John Coltrane in his hometown of Hamlet earlier this year and went on to paint images of Don Gibson and Earl Scruggs in Shelby.