Biography

After the driving, traditional gospel of “Jesus Satisfies” and the progressive bluegrass instrumental, “The Drifter,” Mountain Home Music Company’s Danny Roberts is back with ”Life On The Road,” a contemplative meditation — and one that, the ace mandolinist says, reflects the reality he’s known as a touring musician for nearly 40 years.


“My good friend, Dolton Robertson, wrote this song and sent it to me,” Roberts recalls. “The moment I finished listening, I knew that I wanted to record it. I really feel the story told by this song hits home with some of the real life feelings and experiences that a road musician goes through, and expresses them in a way that makes it easy for everyone to relate to. The line, ‘a handful of fans and some friends we call a band,’ jumped out and really spoke to me, and I think that sentiment will resonate with others as well.”


Focusing on the song’s deftly outlined story and narrative structure, Roberts and his colleagues — fiddler Jimmy Mattingly (Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton); Tony Wray (guitar, banjo); daughter (and IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year) Jaelee Roberts (harmony vocal), and wife Andrea Roberts on bass — forego flashy picking as he offers the mingled melancholy and hope of its elegantly simple lyrics:


I spend my nights up in the lights
The life I live in the songs I write
Always thoughts of home, in a crowd, I’m still alone
I pray my dreams will work out right
Chasing those dreams both day and night


Says Roberts, “‘Life On The Road’ is a musical picture of a way of life that so many have chosen, including myself…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


About Danny Roberts
For over 30 years, mandolinist Danny Roberts has been a steady presence in the heart of the bluegrass mainstream. Born and raised in Leitchfield, Kentucky, he was a founding member of New Tradition, a prominent bluegrass gospel group that toured widely throughout the 1990s, released eight well-received albums (including two for Mountain Home Music Company) and served as a “school of bluegrass” for musicians who went on to work with artists such as the Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and the Special Consensus. At the beginning of the century, Danny began working for Gibson Musical Instruments, eventually becoming head of its Mandolin Division and Nashville Plant and Repair Supervisor before starting his own repair service, Just Off The Bench. While still at Gibson, he helped to found The Grascals, the award-winning bluegrass sextet that quickly rose to the music’s top ranks when they earned the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Song and Emerging Artist of the Year awards in 2005 and its top Entertainer of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007; he continues to serve as the group’s mandolin player and senior member. Danny released his first solo album in 2004, and made his Mountain Home Music Company debut as a solo artist with 2014’s Nighthawk.