John Roberts (born May 5, 1944) is an English musician residing in
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
.
He is best known for his musical collaborations with
Tony Barrand
Anthony Grant Barrand (April 3, 1945 – January 29, 2022) was a British-born American folk singer and academic. He was a Professor of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University, where his courses included "Stalking the Wild ...
. As
Roberts and Barrand
Roberts and Barrand was a musical group formed in 1969 by John Roberts (musician), John Roberts and Tony Barrand while they were graduate students in psychology at Cornell University. Much of their repertoire is traditional English music, although ...
, they performed ''
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
'' and accompanied performances of traditional English folk music. They also performed and recorded fare such as
sea shanties
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...
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
Yule, actually Yuletide ("Yule time") is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in the now better-known Christmastide. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indig ...
concert series.
Born in England, Roberts moved to the United States to study graduate level psychology at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where he formed his longtime music partnership with Tony Barrand in 1968.
Roberts also has a solo career, is a member of the trio
Ye Mariners All (with John Rockwell and Larry Young), and performs regularly with upstate New York's
Broken String Band.
He has 1 brother called Terry. His niece is called Elizabeth. His great niece and nephew are called Harry and Charlotte-Louise.
Discography
Solo
''Sea Fever'' (2003) Golden Hind Music
# "Campañero"
# "Diego's Bold Shore"
# "The Bonny Ship the Diamond"
# "Candlelight Fisherman"
# "Farewell Nancy"
# "The Weeping Willow Tree"
# "The Boatman's Cure"
# "Short Jacket and White Trousers"
# "Sir Patrick Spens"
# "Let the Bulgine Run/Sally in the Garden/Hog-Eye Man"
# "The Black Cook"
# "The Saucy Sailor"
# "The Old Figurehead Carver"
# "What Fortunes Guide a Sailor/Leave Her Johnny"
Ye Mariners All
''Songs of the Sea'' (2003) Golden Hind Music
# "The 'Fame' of Salem"
# "Marcherot"
# "The Steam Packet"
# "Wings of a Goney"
# "Pique la Baleine"
# "Three Jolly Fishermen"
# "Jack Robinson"
# "Old Billy Riley-O"
# "Hourra les Filles"
# "Serafina"
# "Rolling Down to Old Maui"
# "Yangtse River Chantey"
# "The 'Balaena'"
# "Hullabaloo Belay"
# "You Gentlemen of Boston"
# "Nantucket Point/Off She Goes"
# "Noah's Ark Chantey"
# "The 'Jamestown' Homeward Bound"
Roberts and Barrand
* ''Spencer the Rover is Alive and Well…'' (1971, 2001)
* ''Across the Western Ocean'' (1973, 2000)
* ''Mellow With Ale From the Horn'' (1975)
* ''Dark Ships in the Forest'' (1977, 1997)
* ''Live at Holsteins!'' (1983)
* ''A Present from the Gentlemen'' (1992)
* ''Naulakha Redux'' (1997)
* ''Heartoutbursts'' (1998)
* ''Twiddlum Twaddlum'' (2003)
Nowell Sing We Clear
* ''Nowell Sing We Clear'' (1977)
* ''To Welcome In The Spring'' (1980)
* ''The Second Nowell'' (1981)
* ''Nowell Sing We Clear, Vol. 3'' (1985)
* ''Nowell Sing We Four'' (1988)
* ''the best of Nowell Sing We Clear 1975–1986'' (1989)
* ''Hail Smiling Morn!'' (1995)
* ''Just Say Nowell'' (2000)
* ''Nowell Nowell Nowell!'' (2008)
John Roberts and
Debra Cowan
Debra Cowan is a singer based in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Biography
Debra Cowan had worked as middle school maths teacher, until, in 1997, she decided to quit and pursue her desire to sing. For 6 month she had lived in Edinburgh, Scotland wh ...
''Ballads Long & Short'' (2015) Golden Hinds Music
# "Drive Dull Care Away"
# "The Broadside Man"
# "The Tailor's Breeches"
# "Fair Annie"
# "Garners Gay"
# "Combing the Mane"
# "The 'Cornstalk'"
# "The Bonny Hind"
# "Twa Corbies"
# "When Fortune Turns the Wheel"
# "Gypsum Davy"
# "Jim Jones"
# "Anderson's Coast"
# "Bold Riley"
References
External links
Golden Hind Music(official site)
John Roberts Music(official site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, John
American folk musicians
Cornell University alumni
Maritime music
Living people
1944 births