Eck Robertson

Eck Robertson

Source: Old Weird America

Launching the HMR Project in bluegrass music is fiddler, Eck Robertson, at the quick of country folk music in the United States. Robertson reflects the white hillbilly version of the itinerate folk musician as distinguished from black folk blues musicians who worked the Mississippi Delta region. The term "bluegrass" didn't come into wide usage until the fifties, most properly referencing Appalachia.

Appalachia

Source: Wikipedia

Robertson wasn't from Appalachia and was too early at his time to be called a bluegrass musician. His place is at the grass roots of bluegrass for reason of dexterity with his violin, pointing toward a genre which hallmark is its demand on string instrumentalists, the bar ever set high. Alexander "Eck" Robertson (Alexander Campbell Robertson) was born on 20 November 1887 in Delaney, Arkansas. He began playing fiddle at age five while living on a farm in the Texas panhandle. He was 16 when he left home to travel with a medicine show in Oklahoma. As a young man he worked as a piano tuner for the Total Line Music Company when not playing playing fiddle at silent film theaters with his with his wife, Nettie.

Robertson happened to meet Henry Gilliland, a 74 year-old fiddler, at an Old Confederate Soldiers Reunion in Richmond, Virginia, when both decided to go to New York City to record. Simple as that the pair acquired studio time with Victor, putting down four tracks on June 30, 1922: 'Arkansas Traveler' saw issue on Victor 18956. 'Turkey in the Straw' was released on Victor 19149. 'Apple Blossom' and 'Forked Deer' went unissued. The next day on July 1 Robertson recorded six more tracks with Gilliland out and Nat Shilkret at piano on four of them. Of six tracks gone down four were issued: 'Sallie Gooden' (Victor 18956), 'Sally Johnson and Billy in the Low Ground' (Victor 19372), 'Ragtime Annie' (Victor 19149) and 'Done Gone', (Victor 19372).

'Arkansas Traveler'   Eck Robertson w Henry C. Gilliland

Recorded 30 June 1922   Issued on Victor 18956 B

Composition: Traditional

'Turkey in the Straw'   Eck Robertson w Henry C. Gilliland

Recorded 30 June 1922   Issued on Victor 19149 A

Composition: Traditional

'Sallie Gooden'   Eck Robertson

Recorded 1 July 1922   Issued on Victor 18956 A

Composition: Traditional

'Ragtime Annie'   Eck Robertson

Recorded 1 July 1922   Issued on Victor 19149 B

Composition: Traditional

Per Tony Russell's 'Country Music Records', titles mentioned above were the last that Robertson put down until August 12 of 1929 in Dallas for five issued titles as A.C. Robertson & Family: 'Texas Wagoner' (Victor 40145), 'There's a Brown Skin Girl Down the Road Somewhere' (Victor 40145), 'Amarillo Waltz' (Victor 40298), 'Brown Kelly Waltz Part 1' (Victor 40334) 'Brown Kelly Waltz Part 2' (Victor 40334). His Family consisted of wife, Nettie, on guitar, his son, Deuron, on banjo, and his daughter, Daphne, on guitar.

'Brown Kelly Waltz' Parts 1 & 2   Eck as A.C. Robertson & Family

Recorded 12 Aug 1929   Issued on Victor 40334 A & B

Composition: Eck Rpbertson

October of '29 saw several sessions for ten titles variously with his family, five issued: 'Great Big Taters'/'Run Boy Run' (Victor 40205), 'Brilliancy Medley' (Victor 40298) and 'The Island Unknown' Parts 1 & 2 (Victor 40166).

'Brilliancy Medley'   Eck as A.C. Robertson & Family

Recorded 29 Oct 1929   Issued on Victor 40298 A

Composition: Eck Rpbertson

Wikipedia cites Robertson recording 100 lost titles in Dallas in September of 1940 for Jack Seller Studios. Robertson's career was spent as a fiddler might at the time, performing at dances, theatres, radio stations and fiddling conventions. Though not properly bluegrass, he's a not so distant progenitor of country folk music in a style which essence is less at song than virtuosic ability with a banjo, fiddle, guitar or mandolin. Bluegrass is the jazz of North American folk music, and the jazz of country when it's not swing. Robertson died on February 15, 1975, in Amarillo, Texas, plenty long enough to appreciate the creation of the bluegrass (hillbilly) subgenre of country music in the latter forties and the formation of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the latter sixties.