b. Swabia, Germany. Scottish singer-songwriter Roberts earned a cult following and critical plaudits as the leader of the lo-fi band Appendix Out, with whom he released a series of beguiling albums during the late 90s and early years of the new millennium. In 2001, Roberts took a break from Appendix Out to launch his solo career with an album of traditional Scottish folk songs, The Crook Of My Arm. This was not as surprising as it appeared as his songwriting on the Appendix Out albums drew heavily on the folk tradition of the land of his birth. The 2003 follow-up, Farewell Sorrow, was a collection of self-written material that drew on Roberts' background in the folk and indie genres to create a world-view at once startlingly modern and as old as the hills. The tracks, "The Whole House Is Singing" and "Slowly Growing Old", were praised as modern folk classics.
The eclectic Roberts chose to return to traditional material for his next recording, 2005's No Earthly Man, tackling eight classic murder ballads in an uneven collaboration with US lo-fi maverick Will Oldham. Roberts and Oldham also record with Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia as the Amalgamated Sons Of Rest.
