BATH – Popular Maine folk artist David Mallett will return to The Chocolate Church Arts Center for a 7:30 p.m. concert Saturday, Feb. 4.

Mallett’s songs speak to the essential things that move us all. Having grown up in a small rural town, he knows about the people who shouldn’t have stayed, but did, and those who shouldn’t have left, but did.

Raised in a musical family, by the age of 10 he was touring with his older brother Neil, singing at grange halls and county fairs.

In his early 20s, he started his solo career, writing his own songs and eventually performing them across the United States and in Canada and Europe.

One of his songs, “Garden Song,” has been translated into several languages and is one of America’s most popular folk songs. Other singers who’ve recorded Mallett’s songs include Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Hal Ketchum, Pete Seeger and even the Muppets.

The songs Mallett writes and sings are filled with passion, evocative imagery and a sense of the inevitable passage of time. The loss of American towns and rural landscapes is the subject of many of his songs, as are the issues of wilderness preservation and the struggle of the common man.

“I like to keep reaching out to touch the past,” he says, “to connect it with what’s going on now. To me, music is one of the few things that is timeless.”

“Artist In Me” is David Mallett’s most recent work. Recorded in the spring of 2003, it contains a new collection of songs, including “Strange Life,” “Like Me Without You” and “Angel Standin’ By.” A subtle blending of guitars, bass, drums and violin complements the voice of this unique and consistent singer-songwriter.

Mallett’s most recent honor comes from the readers of Folkwax (www.folkwax.com), who voted him 2003 Artist of the Year and named “Artist in Me” 2003 Album of the Year.

Tickets for Feb. 4 concert are $17 for members of the arts center, $20 in advance for the general public or $22 at the door. They can be purchased by calling The Chocolate Church Arts Center at 442-8455.