Alasdair Roberts - Biography
Having begun as a rural folk combo called Appendix Out with some school chums, Scotland-born singer-songwriter Alasdair Roberts gained cult status in 1996 when a demo tape of his plaintive, evocative and patented medieval songs caught Will Oldham’s attention, leading to an charmed if unexpected career as a recording artist. Oldham’s own Palace Records put out Appendix Out’s first 7”, Ice Age/Pissed With You, and the two esoteric folkies have collaborated on a variety of recordings and projects over the years. After gaining recognition on the aegis and championing of Oldham—and for sharing a root similarity in form—Appendix Out signed with Chicago’s Drag City Records, and recorded their first of three full-length albums: The Rye Bears a Poison (1997), followed by Daylight Saving (1999) and The Night is Advancing (2001). Roberts then began recording and performing under his own name as a solo artist in 2001. Since that time, he has released six LPs, a couple of EPs and several 7” singles.
Roberts grew up in Callander in Central Scotland, listening to Musical Youth and Boy George in his formative youth, and he learned to play guitar early in life. It would be the likes of Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan and Archie Fisher that would become his scaffolding, though, as Roberts took the baton of those Scottish folkies and took it right into contemporary times. He penned his first song at 15-years-old, a number he called “Autumn,” after watching footage of the Hindenburg crash and hearing the famous words, “Oh the humanity.”
Roberts formed Appendix Out in 1994 with Ali Roberts (singer/guitarist) and save E. While (violin/bass), and the trio played local gigs. They put together a demo tape of their material, front-loaded with the best songs, and handed one to Will Oldham—the so-called Appalachian post-punk solipsist—while attending a show of his in the UK. Oldham identified with the artistic sincerity, honesty and straight-forwardness of his oddball counterpart Roberts, and his Palace label out the 7” Ice Age/Pissed With You. Other singles followed, including one with The Leopards, and soon thereafter, Appendix Out signed to Drag City. They released three albums, the third—The Night is Advancing (2001)—was the most dynamic and experimental in feel, featuring Oldham and Jason Molina (of Songs: Ohia), which was a collaborative unit they called the Amalgamated Sons of Rest.
As Appendix Out’s last album began to branch out musically into other areas, Roberts wrote what would become him first solo album—The Crook of My Arm (2001 Secretly Canadian)—which was comprised of a dozen traditional folks songs. Using sparse acoustic guitar and his at turns completely evincing and understated vocals, the album was an embracing declaration of his folk music roots. A year later, Appendix Out released an EP of cover songs called A Warm and Yeasty Corner, which included renditions of Vashti Bunyan (“Window Over the Bay”) and The Magnetic Fields (“Josephine”), but that would be the last release for the group under that name.
His second solo album, Farewell Sorrow (2003 Drag City) was Roberts’ first big splash critically, as it featured 12 songs that he penned himself as well as contributions from some of Appendix Out brethren, including Gareth Eggie and Dave Paterson. The record celebrated Roberts’ love of Scottish folk music, incorporating threads of indie pop’s first innovators such as Steeleye Span and Dick Gaughan, updated with sparse, minimalist passages. The Rabelaisian song “Join Our Lusty Chorus” was a highlight on the album.
For his next record, No Earthly Man (2005 Drag City), the Scotsman performed eight British Isles murder ballads and dirges—with tracks such as “Admiral Cole” and “Sweet William”—with Will Oldham adding vocals behind Roberts reedy tenor, as well as a host of instrumental underbrushings, such as dulcimer, harp, fiddle and cello. He returned with Amber Gatherers (2007 Drag City), which was 12 self-written odes and ballads, centered on the familiar themes of libations, yearning, death and rogue behavior, highlighted by the classic tracks “Firewater” and “I Had a Kiss of the King’s Hand.”
Alasdair Roberts’ fifth album—Spoils (2009 Drag City)—drew further comparisons to Martin Carthy with his spry lilt and heavily accented delivery, particularly on the opening track “The Flyting of Grief and Joy (Eternally Returning).” After touring with the legendary Bert Jansch, he returned in 2010 with To Long In This Condition (Drag City), a trad-folk album that continued to embrace Roberts’ eccentricities in voice and style, especially on the opening track, “The Daemon Lover.” 2013 sees his next record, A Wonder Working Stone, released.
