Career
In 1941, Roach"s parents moved from South Carolina to Washington, District of Columbia, where the twenty-seven-year-old Roach later heard regional musicians John Jackson, John Cephas and Archie Edwards, who became his mentors in traditional Piedmont blues guitar. Upon relocating to the United Kingdom, Roach became active on the European blues scene, and founded the European Blues Association (EBA) with writer/historian Doctor Paul Oliver, Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1997. The European Blues Association became a registered charity in 2002, and Roach currently serves as its director
In 2000, Michael Roach founded "Blues Week", an annual residential program of lectures and instruction in country blues guitar, harmonica, blues piano and vocals at Northampton University (United Kingdom).
In 2003, Roach presented Deep Blue, a three part series on blues music featured on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4. In 2006 he released an instructional Digital Video Disc, Introduction to Country Blues Guitar.
Roach"s tours as an educator and performer have taken him to the Augusta Heritage Center (United States), Centrum Piedmont Blues Intensive (United States), The Ironworks (United Kingdom) and the Smithsonian Institution (United States). He has performed and lectured at blues, jazz, folk and roots music festivals in Croatia, Czechoslovakian Republic, England, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Wales.
