EVERETT — Paul Roberts came through the door and shed his sports coat.
He ditched his tie in Shelton, where he had attended an hours-long public hearing for his day job.
He was frustrated and tired. It was 11 at night, but he was too wound up to sleep.
He turned on a single lamp and grabbed his acoustic guitar, a Martin. He sank into the sofa, cradling the wooden neck in one hand, testing the strings with the other.
His voice began to tease out the words of a bittersweet ballad. He was ready to unplug from the world.
A time for decisions / A time to make up your mind / And I’ve seen visions / You know I’ve seen enough of a sign / That these are crazy times.
Most people know Roberts as the president of Everett’s City Council, a wonkish, tie-wearing public official who leads from the dais most every Wednesday night.
He’s also a cowboy-boot wearing songwriter, a musician and a bit of a dreamer.
For more than a decade, Roberts has played in a local folk-rock band called Nomad Fish. The name seems appropriate for the Northwest, a place where the salmon is king. He and his bandmates released a self-titled CD in 1998 and another is planned for September.
Roberts started playing guitar in a bluegrass band as a student at Evergreen State in Olympia in 1971. Then and now, it was a past time, a passion, a release.
Over the years he taught himself to play the pedal-steel guitar, a tricky instrument with foot pedals, knee levers and the necks of a guitar that he describes as looking like “a dinette set without chairs.”
“I don’t even chew gum when I play that instrument,” Roberts said. “It’s very demanding — you can make some really ugly sounds real quick.”
It developed out of the lap-steel guitar — he plays that, too — an instrument he lays across his lap and picks with his finger. He uses a metal slide to control the pitch of the notes.
Playing both instruments can be devilish, since neither has frets.
The pedal-steel produces a melodic, twang most easily associated with country. Roberts prefers to apply that sound in unusual and unexpected ways to rock.
If needed, he can knock out a tune on the harmonica. He also sings and plays several kinds of guitars, including a dobro. When he first heard its sound, he couldn’t imagine anything more soulful.
Roberts insists he’ll never match the musical greatness of heroes such as dobro great Mike Auldridge. His bandmates said he could probably be one of the greats, if he didn’t spend so many hours working.
“Paul is a natural musician with a great ear,” said Mark Hibbert, a professional musician that played solo and with acts such as Merrilee Rush and The Turnabouts and Axis Drive.
He said Roberts plays the pedal steel “like a fine wire going through butter.”
Truly good musicians have a way of stretching a chord, adding a grace note, a bit of musical embellishment, that can’t be taught. Roberts has that, he said.
Hibbert runs his own recording studio in Marysville, Whiskey Ridge Recording. It’s there he ran into Roberts and another member of the future band, David McGuire, then a city official for Lake Stevens.
The two had come to record some music and Hibbert liked what he heard, but “they needed a bass in the worst way.” That’s what Hibbert played. So he offered his services.
Soon, the three were meeting Thursday nights to riff song lyrics and melodies off each other. They were natural collaborators. Then came a friend of Hibbert’s, drummer Ron Rudge. Others come and go.
Roberts’ songs tend to be what his bandmates call affectionately, “wrist-cutters” — sensitive pieces that often comment on life such as the soulful “She Dances on Water.”
He can write a foot-stomper too. On the upcoming album, Roberts’ “Edge on You,” has gotten audiences dancing.
His bandmates said he’s no guitar-smasher on stage. While a lot of bands fly apart because of egos, Roberts has a complete absence of one, McGuire said. His only complaint: He’s caught Roberts repacking the instruments.
The group has played some public gigs but don’t expect to see them hitting the bar circuit. McGuire now lives in Boulder, Colo., and band practices alone and then comes together to record.
They do plan to play in Everett at the release of their next album, planned for September.
Roberts said he’ll have his cowboy boots on.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com
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