Ted Roberson
Blues • Middletown, NY
TED ROBERSON began playing guitar in the middle 50's
with local gospel groups in his hometown, Angier, North
Carolina. Early in 1964 he joined Les Cooper and the
House Rockers as a guitarist. The group's biggest hit
record was called Wiggle Wobble. He toured with Cooper
and the Rockers until he was drafted in the army in 1966
for a two year tour of service during the Vietnam War,
during which he faced active combat.
Returning home in 1968, Ditto Edwards (of Ditto and The
Lovers) recruited Mr. Roberson to tour Europe and the
Middle East as their lead guitarist and vocalist.
In 1970 Ted created, arranged and produced the
preliminary cuts for "We've Got To Bust Out Of The
Ghettos" in his home studio in a collaboration with
Ricky Williams (brilliant pianist) and Moody Scott (the
legendary R&B, Soul and Blues Singer.) The album
production was sounding so good, Roberson decided to
complete the production of "Bust Out" at Odds On Studio
in Las Vegas where, in the final version Ted also did
bass guitar and background vocals on the recordings.
In 1971 Mr. Roberson toured Europe again, this time with
Ditto and The Lovers and the USO show, predominantly as
lead guitar and background vocalist.
After a year, good as the music he was making was, Ted
decided he needed to do more of his own music. He
collected the best musicians he could find and formed
his own group called The N.Y. Stock Exchange. Pierre
Royal, a booking agent in Montréal Canada heard the
group play and immediately sent them on a five year
touring through Canada from St.Catherine’s to Nova
Scotia, Roberson doing lead vocals and guitar.
In 1976, exhausted from the non-musical work necessary
to keep the band running, Ted disbanded the group and
the Bill Doggett Combo, then famous for the song, Honky
Tonk recruited him for another long tour, this time of
America, from the east to the west coast.
That tour brought Roberson into doing a long series of
gigging free lances with Don Covey, Ben E. King, Noble
Watts, Etta James, Wilber Harrison, Donny Albert, Eddy
Holman and dozens of other greats. During that time
Roberson collaborated with Moody as co- writer arranger
producer, and Ted on lead, bass and rhythm guitar,
keyboards and back up vocals as they produced the very
popular CD, The Many Moods of Moody.
Taking a very long break from touring, Mr. Roberson now
enjoys doing local gigs with his favorite musicians
(Warren Daniels,Kenny Barone,Gregg Wise,Lou Green,Denard
Michaels, Ricky Williams, Moody Scott). Ted writes and
records more and more of his own music. He says, "I
just love making music!" and you can sure hear that in
his work.
Here are some additional links to more of Ted Roberson's
music:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/niarobemusic
www.cdbaby.com/cd/tedroberson2
www.cdbaby.com/cd/tedroberson3
www.cdbaby.com/cd/tedroberson4