Dink Roberts

{{Short description|American old-time banjo player}}

File: Dink Roberts.jpg

James "Dink" Roberts (September 15, 1894 – August 30, 1989) was an American old-time banjo player. His performances, which were recorded in the 1970s by folklorists, illustrate a style of playing that pre-dates the blues.

Born in Chatham County, North Carolina, Roberts learned the artistry of the banjo from local black musicians—particularly Mince Phillips who was a close friend Roberts sometimes performed with—active in the corresponding Alamance County. As a young adult, Roberts worked as a tenant farmer, and became well-respected among both black and white field hands when he performed at dances among other types of gatherings.{{cite web|url=http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40079.pdf|title=Liner notes to Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia|publisher=Smithsonian Folkways|author=Conway, Cece|accessdate=February 7, 2017}} His archaic clawhammer picking style was "noticeably different (among other things, more rhythmically complex, i.e., 'syncopated', for lack of a better term)", compared to many of Roberts' contemporaries.{{cite web|url=http://fieldrecorder.org/product/dink-roberts/|title=Dink Roberts|publisher=Field Recorder|author=Winan, Bob|accessdate=February 7, 2017}} Folklorist Cece Conway, in her analysis of Roberts' better-known recording, "Coo Coo", described his playing as "fascinating in how he constructs melody and wonders off on tangents mid-song that seem both random and perfectly expected at the same time".{{cite web|url=https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/transcriptions/coo-coo-a-study/coo-coo-by-dink-roberts/|title=Coo Coo by Dink Robert|publisher=Duke University|author=Conway, Cece|date=12 March 2013 |accessdate=February 7, 2017}}

Roberts was visited by Conway and Scott Odell to record him at his home in 1974; the results appear on the compilation album Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dink-roberts-mn0000217433|title=Dink Roberts - Biography|publisher=AllMusic|author=Chadbourne, Eugene|accessdate=February 7, 2017}} Occasionally, Roberts returned to performing, most notably he made an appearance at the Winter Folk Festival in 1976. His style was the subject of the documentary film Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician. Roberts died in 1989; he was 94 years-old.