Michael Roach (born March 18, 1955,

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) is an expatriate American blues performer and educator, who has released six albums on the independent Stella Records label. He conducts workshops on African American musical/cultural heritage internationally, and is a founder of the European Blues Association.

Career

In 1941, Roach's parents moved from

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to Washington, D.C., where the twenty-seven-year-old Roach later heard regional musicians John Jackson, John Cephas and Archie Edwards, who became his mentors in traditional Piedmont blues guitar. Upon relocating to the UK, Roach became active on the European blues scene, and founded the European Blues Association (EBA) with writer/historian Dr. Paul Oliver,

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in 1997. The European Blues Association became a registered charity in 2002, and Roach currently serves as its director. In 2000, Michael Roach founded "Blues Week", an annual residential program of lectures and instruction in

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

guitar, harmonica, blues piano and vocals at Northampton University (UK). In 2003, Roach presented ''Deep Blue'', a three part series on blues music featured on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. In 2006 he released an instructional DVD, ''Introduction to Country Blues Guitar''. Roach's tours as an educator and

performer The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfor ...

have taken him to the Augusta Heritage Center (US),

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Piedmont Blues Intensive (US), The Ironworks (UK) and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

(US). He has performed and lectured at blues, jazz, folk and roots music festivals in Croatia, Czech Republic, England, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Discography

* 1993 – ''Ain't Got Me No Home'' (Stella Records) * 1997 – ''The Blinds of Life'' (Stella Records) * 2000 – ''Good News Blues'' (Stella Records) * 2003 – ''Cypress Grove'' (Stella Records) * 2006 – ''I Betcha !'' (Stella Records) * 2010 – ''Innocent Child'' (Stella Records)

References

External links

Article on Michael Roach, "Back to the Crossroads", January 2009

Michael Roach homepage

European Blues Association

Blues Week/Euroblues site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roach, Michael 1955 births Living people American blues guitarists American male guitarists Piedmont blues musicians Contemporary blues musicians 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians