R.I.P. Jeff Roberts, Myrtle Beach’s Beloved Minister of Music
SxSE co-founder and director Jeff Roberts
By Dariel Bendin
I won’t say that music in Myrtle Beach died along with Jeff Roberts. But it took a hit and the whole community is feeling the pain.
Co-founder and director for Myrtle Beach’s nonprofit South By Southeast, Jeff has been working his butt off for years - keeping music in our schools, supporting our local musicians and bringing topnotch national and regional talents to perform at the monthly SxSE Music Feasts at the city’s historic Train Depot.
On a personal note, Jeff was simply one of my favorite people. The perfect day for me would include a stop at his wonderfully independent Sounds Better record store, where I could just hang with Jeff for a while. Our Minister of Music was always up to the challenge: “Find me something I’ll love that I’ve never heard before.” And he’d rustle through a stack of CDs or flip through a bin of LPs until he came up with just the right recording.
That’s how I learned about the incredible blues mandolin player Yank Rachell. It was Jeff Roberts who introduced me to Mike Farris - both the music and the man - whose gospel vocals are nothing short of life-changing. Without Jeff Roberts I wouldn’t know the green-eyed soul of Lari White. Or the rockin’ good humor of Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack. Or the quirky blues of Harry Manx.
Jeff Roberts was my mentor, my teacher, my friend. So Jeff, if you’re reading this - and I know you are - thank you for everything. I am so much the better for knowing you.
But where is that Verlon Thompson CD you’ve been promising me?
This was originally published at DarielB Music & Marketing. © 2010. Dariel Bendin.
I first met Jeff when I came to Myrtle Beach with the Steamboat Springs Band in the summer of ‘74. We were booked to play the Pickin’ Parlor for the summer and Jeff soon became a regular at the club and our house. He was working at Jr. Blanton’s record store at the time and became our #1 fan and promoter throughout the summer. We learned about here to eat, the good local places, where to go on our one night off and met some of the most memorable characters in MB, all through “Giant Jeff.”
We remained friends over the past 35 years and I last saw him 3 or 4 years ago when my family vacationed at Myrtle Beach. I enjoyed the visits with him talking about obscure musicians, old stuff and new stuff. He talked about SXSE like a proud parent but, with little mention of the role he played in it’s birth. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed those last visits and how much he meant to me until my brother Joel called and told me about his death. I was shocked as were many but, only after reading the obituary and some of the wonderful things people wrote about him, did it sink in how much he really meant to me.
He truly was Myrtle Beach’s Minister of Music. Nobody, I mean nobody, knew more about music than he did. Rock on, Giant Jeff, Rock on!!