Roy Roberts (born February 22, 1943) is an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

, record producer, and singer-songwriter. Roberts grew up in a small town in

Livingston, Tennessee Livingston is a town in Overton County, Tennessee, Overton County, Tennessee, United States, and serves as the county seat. The population was 3,905 at the 2020 census and 4,058 at the 2010 census. The current mayor, Lori Elder Burnette , Livings ...

, United States, listening to blues and R&B on radio stations. At the age of 14 he worked on a nearby farm to earn the money for his first guitar, a mail order

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

Silvertone.

History

Roberts left farm-life at age 18 to live with an uncle in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

. He was inspired to become a professional musician after he went to a nightclub where

Jerry Butler Jerry Butler Jr. (December 8, 1939 – February 20, 2025) was an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, who were inducted into the Rock and ...

was performing. Roberts worked hard honing his guitar skills while playing in bands until he landed a job with local Greensboro hero, Guitar Kimbers’ Untouchables. Before long, he began backing up major artists who came through town. One major artist,

Solomon Burke Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been called ...

, took Roberts under his wing after letting him sit in as a bass player during a local gig. Roberts soon became the guitarist behind Burke on tour. Roberts subsequently picked up touring gigs with

Eddie Floyd Eddie Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the No. 1 R&B hit song " Knock on Wood". Early life and education Floy ...

, “Little”

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

Dee Clark Dee Clark (November 7, 1938 – December 7, 1990) was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the song " Raindrops", which became a million-seller in the Uni ...

and

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

, while fronting his own band, The Roy Roberts Experience, on the regional club scene and Southeastern beach town circuit. Roberts began to cut records in the mid-1960s, staying mostly behind the scenes as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

with Eddie Floyd, Dee Clark, Stevie Wonder, William Bell, Solomon Burke, and Otis Redding. The death of Otis Redding inspired Roberts to step up to the microphone with a song dedicated to the late crooner. The record was released on

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

’s NinaAndy label. Roberts followed this successful effort with a string of singles that carried him well into the 1970s. During the

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

years, Roberts turned his talents to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

, touring with O.B. McClinton and releasing a number of country records. After a brief hiatus from the music scene, Roberts built a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

in Virginia in 1989, where he produced records by regional gospel artists and cut a gospel record of his own. In the early 1990s, Roberts returned to Greensboro, and built Rock House Records recording studio. Besides recording his own material on Rock House, Roberts has produced albums for Priscilla Price, Lou Pride,

Chick Willis Robert Lee "Chick" Willis (September 24, 1934 – December 7, 2013) was an American blues singer and guitarist, who performed and recorded from the 1950s to the 2000s. Biography He was born in Cabaniss, Monroe County, Georgia, the cousin of Ch ...

Skeeter Brandon Skeeter Brandon (April 22, 1948 – March 20, 2008) was an American blind blues keyboardist, singer and songwriter. From 1966 to 1991, Brandon played in various bands across the United States. He joined Highway 61 in 1991, and recorded four alb ...

Floyd Miles Floyd Miles (April 13, 1943 – January 25, 2018) was an American electric blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He released four solo albums from 1992 onwards. Life and career Miles was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Flori ...

and Eddie Floyd. He has won numerous awards for his record production and his own music.

Discography

* ''Introducing Roy Roberts'' - 1994 * ''A Woman Needs Love'' - 1995 * ''Roy Roberts Live'' - 1995 * ''Every Shade of Blue'' - 1997 * ''Deeper Shade of Blue'' - 1999 * ''Burnin’ Love'' - 2001 * ''Daylight with a Flashlight'' - 2003 * ''Partners and Friends'' - 2004 * ''By Request -The Best of Roy Roberts'' - 2005 * ''Sicily Moon'' - 2006 * ''Roy Roberts & Friends'' (Blues & Soul Review) - 2006 * ''Man with a Message'' (Gospel) - 2007 * ''It's Only You'' - 2008 * ''Strange Love'' - 2011

Films

''Scripture Cake'', a movie written, directed, and produced by Dr. Emily D. Edwards, contained six songs by Roberts. Four were original material, two were instrumentals only. He also sings a medley of

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

songs.

Awards

* 2001 :Keeping the Blues Alive - Piedmont Blues Preservation Society * 2002 :Cover of ''The Living Blues'' Magazine :''The Living Blues'' Producer of the Year :Artist Most Deserving of Wider Recognition :Best Blues Album -

' ''From the Heart & Soul'' was produced by Roy Roberts at his Rock House Records Studio * 2003 :Franco Rubegni Award (For the spreading of soul music) * 2004 :CBMA Blues Song of the Year for "I Slipped" * 2006 :CBMA Pioneer Award and induction into the Hall of Fame :Interstate highway sign dedicated to Roberts by his hometown of

References

External links

Carolina Beach Music Awards (Cammy)

Roy Roberts Website

Roy Roberts Recording Studio Website

''Scripture Cake'' movie poster
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Roy 1943 births Living people African-American guitarists American gospel singers American blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Guitarists from Tennessee Record producers from Tennessee Singers from Tennessee African-American country musicians 20th-century American guitarists People from Livingston, Tennessee Country musicians from Tennessee 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians