In Roberts's first performance on that tour, he played on stage at The Tonight Show[3] Following his first tour with Redbone, Roberts moved to New Orleans[3] in 1989 where he subsequently performed in all the major jazz clubs in the French Quarter including Preservation Hall, as well as on many New Orleans riverboats.

He was unable to tour with Redbone during this time since he would have risked losing his position working at the local venues in New Orleans.

While there, he also arranged and performed at Lincoln Center under Phil Schapp in a concert showing the evolution of the big band.

Upon returning to Pittsburgh in 2006, Roberts continued to tour worldwide with bands from New Orleans and New York such as Leon Redbone, the Original Dixieland Jazzband, and the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble.

[1] He has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio and has published a number of articles in the magazine Piano Today.

Roberts and his band, the Red Beans and Rice Combo including Dave Klug[7] (artist, illustrator, and musician) and Wayne "Wayno" Honath (the current cartoonist of the Bizarro (comic strip)), was featured in Rick Seback's 2020 holiday special, Happy Holidays In Pittsburgh.

He also performed with Redbone on The Statler Brothers Show on TNN[8] In 2006, Roberts wrote a number of arrangements for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a concert featuring the music of Louis Armstrong that took place that October.

Roberts earned international recognition as an expert in the stride piano style[1] and has performed throughout the United States and Europe.

In 2012, Roberts was contacted by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh to perform live accompaniment for a series of silent films they planned to screen.

Roberts has written and performed multiple scores to accompany silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, and F. W. Murnau.

In 2022, Roberts wrote an original score for the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau which he debuted in February 2022 at the Harris Theater in Pittsburgh for two sold-out performances.