Career
Roberts is known for his musical collaborations with Tony Barrand. As Roberts and Barrand, they performed "a cappella" and accompanied performances of traditional English folk music. They also performed and recorded fare such as Sea shanties of the North Atlantic, and an album of traditional drinking songs. the duo was also half of the related act "Nowell Sing We Clear" - which in addition to a number of albums - performs an annual yuletide concert series.
Roberts also had a solo career. Daniel Neely of the Irish Echo called John Roberts one of the great voices of traditional song. He performed across the East Coast at cities including Altamont and Glens Falls, New York.
In 1975, Roberts was the featured solo artist in the fifth concert of the Fall Folk Series at Hubbard Hall, a historic opera house and performing arts center in Cambridge, New York. The Post-Star described Roberts as "one of the important influences in the revival of English folk music in North America." His repertoire included traditional songs from England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, together with traditional and contemporary North American folk music. He performed both unaccompanied and with guitar, banjo, and English and Anglo concertinas. On April 2, 1978 WXPN Philadelphia radio station broadcast a 3 hour radio show program with John Roberts, on British Folk Music. On January 12, 1980 John Roberts and Cliff Haslam presented "An Evening of English Folk Songs" at the Chelsea House Folklore Center in Brattleboro, Vermont.
In 2007, Roberts released his first solo album, Sea Fever.
He was a member of the trio Ye Mariners All (with John Rockwell and Larry Young), and performed regularly with upstate New York's Broken String Band. In recent years he had performed with his partner Lisa Preston, as well as folksinger Debra Cowen.
He was a regular at the Old Songs Festival both as a performer and Master of Ceremonies for evening concerts.
