Sally Goodin painting by Richard Matteson featuring Eck Robertson
Eck Robertson Biography- 1922
Alexander Campbell “Eck” Robertson (1887-1975) is recognized as one of America's great traditional fiddlers. He was the first country musician to make a commercially available recording on June 30 and July 1, 1922, for the Victor Talking Machine Company in their New York studios. [Tony Russell in his “Country Music Records” attributes the gospel group Vaughan Quartet’s 1921 recordings on their own Vaughan label, distributed by Gennet, to be the first country recording. Many music historians recognize Roberston’s as the first. They were the first on an established major label- Victor.]
Early Life
Robertson was born in Delaney, Arizona on November 20, 1887. His family moved to the Texas Panhandle region when Eck was three and settled on a small farm outside Amarillo. In the nineteenth century his grandfather, father, and uncles often entered fiddler's contents. Eck started playing the fiddle when he was 5 years old and was already an accomplished musician in his teens. He attended fiddle contests and met veteran players like Polk Harris and Matt Brown who claimed to have written the fiddle standards Ragtime Annie and Done Gone. At age twenty-one his father quit fiddling to pastor a "Camelite" church, a Church of Christ. Robertson decided to pursue a musical career and left home at age sixteen. He traveled with medicine shows, a major employer of country musicians at the time, through the Indian Territory, known today as Oklahoma. At these shows he learned many of his fiddle tricks and became forever linked with a "Texas Style" of fiddling.
In 1906 he married Nettie (Jenetta Bell Levy), his childhood sweetheart, who played the guitar. Together they played magic shows and later silent films. Robertson settled near Amarillo and tuned pianos for the Total-Line Music Company. Pursuing his musical ambitions, he and Nettie continued to perform in vaudeville theaters and fiddle contests in the southwestern states. As a son of a veteran Robertson attended Old Confederate Soldier's Reunions annually.
One of Robertson’s chief rivals at fiddle contests was none other than John Wills, Bob Wills father. Bob apparently got his famous "Ah-hah" holler from his father, for a disgusted Robertson once remarked after losing a contest to the older Wills, "He didn't outfiddle me. That damned old man Wills outhollered me." Charles R. Townsend's biography of Wills, San Antonio Rose.
Fiddle Tricks
Eck explained two special fiddling tricks to Mike Seeger in an interview done in the 1960s. One was the "normal" trick fiddling; tossing the fiddle or the bow in the air, catching it and not missing a beat, playing behind the back, fiddling while "laying down on the stage and doing somersaults" and so forth. He played the tune "Pop Goes the Weasel" for this performance. His other trick was to make his fiddle talk. On many show flyers he asked the question, "Have you ever heard a fiddle talk?" He explained:
"I used to do it on the stage in theaters and take the house down. I offered a dollar to any child in the house who didn't understand what the violin said...And I made that dad-gummed fiddle talk just as plain as anybody could have said the words...I generally wind up on that by playing Sallie Gooden. I'd wind up on the last of it by making that fiddle talk, representing Sallie Gooden going to the cowpen to milk the cow. You'd hear her calling the calves, and then you'd hear the calf bawl. About that time her baby woke up and began to holler- ‘Mamma oh mamma. I want my mamma!’ And just say it as plain as anybody could. Got to put an attachment in my mouth there. To touch the bridge of the fiddle with a piece of steel...Well, you just put that piece of steel in your mouth. It's just like a cigar, about as long as a cigar...You can take a pocket knife even, put it in your mouth; right shaped pocket knife, and do it, too. Anything that will kill the tone of the violin. You touch the bridge at intervals, and know how to pull the bow across the strings to make it do that."
First Record Country Record-Gilliland
After entertaining over 4,000 veterans at the 1922 Old Confederate Soldiers' Reunion in Richmond, Virginia, Robertson and fellow fiddler Henry C. Gilliland, realizing their complimentary talents, traveled to NYC to record at the Victor Talking Machine Company studios. Gilliland, a former justice of the peace, knew an influential lawyer there named Martin W. Littleton. First, a brief paragraph about Gilliland:
Henry Clay Gilliland (1845–1924) won many fiddle contests in North Texas during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was a driving force behind the organization of the Old Fiddlers' Association of Texas (1901) and served for many years as its secretary. He deftly combined Confederate veterans' issues with fiddle contests and used the contests as a means to disseminate "Lost Cause" ideology. In 1910 Gilliland performed at the opening of the State Fair of Texas.The following year he tied for the title of world's championship fiddler at a contest held in Little Rock, Arkansas. Along with Jesse Roberts and the legendary Matt Brown, Gilliland toured northeastern Texas in a fiddling exhibition shortly after the championship contest.
After Gilliland and Roberston arrived in New York City, the men stayed with Littleton in New York who provided them with grand tours of the city, including a visit to the Steinway piano factory. Legend has it that Gilliland wore his full dress Confederate uniform and Eck his wide-brimmed black hat, satin fuchsia shirt with pearl studs, leather cuffs and pants tucked into high-topped boots. The next day Littleton, who did some legal work for Victor, introduced them to the Victor staff. Robertson, who brought his fiddle with him, recalled the incident forty years later:
"You couldn't fool that man was running the shop in the Victor office...But then he come at me, he just come into the room in a hurry with a long piece of paper with names on it. He done that on purpose, you see, thought he'd get rid of me just like he had all the rest of them. He said `Young man, get your fiddle out and start off on a tune.' Said `I can tell that quick whether I can use you or not.' Well, I said back to him just as honest as I could `Mister, I come a long ways to get an audition with you. Maybe I better wait and come back another time. You seem like you're in an awful hurry.' `No,' he said, `Just start off a tune...' Well, I didn't get to play half of Sallie Gooden; he just throwed up his hands and stopped me. Said, `By Ned, that's fine!' And just smiled, you know. Said, `Come back in the morning at nine o'clock and we'll make a test record.’"
The next day on June 30th, 1922 Robertson and Gilliland recorded "Arkansas Traveler"and "Turkey in the Straw'', with Gilliland playing the melody and Eck a high harmony. Then on July 1 Eck returned alone, this time recording six tunes including "Sallie Gooden" and "Ragtime Annie" solo, and two additional tunes accompanied by pianist Nat Shilkret, also a director of the light music division at Victor [“Done Gone” was the only side issued with Shilkret]. Eck stayed in New York ten days, finally returning home to Vernon, Texas, full of memories and stories.
Victor finally released "Sallie Gooden" and "Arkansas Traveler," in April 1923, thus becoming the first commercial record ever released by a country musician. The sales of the first record were encouraging enough for Victor to release six sides from that first session.
For Eck Robertson’s masterpiece “Sallie Goodin,” he tuned his fiddle in AEae. It was the number one country music bestseller for the year 1923. Recorded as an instrumental Robertson sometimes sang these standard lyrics to the tune; Had a piece of pie, had a piece of puddin', Give it all away to see Sallie Goodin'.
Later he talked about the song: “There was a girl named Sallie who had two boyfriends. The two boys were both fiddle players, and one of the boys had the last name of 'Goodin.' Sallie couldn't decide which one to marry, so she thought a fiddle contest between the two would be a good way to make her selection. Of course, the fellow Goodin won the contest, and Sallie became Sallie Goodin. They were very happy and had a productive life with 14 children, so I'm going to play 'Sallie Goodin' 14 different ways.”
One of the First Country Radio Performances
On March 29, 1923, about a year after his unsolicited New York recording session, Robertson performed on WBAP, in Fort Worth , to promote the release of the two numbers he had earlier recorded, “Sallie Gooden” and “Arkansas Traveler.” When doing these numbers, Robertson—termed a “Victor artist” by the Fort Worth Star Telegram—was the first country performer to plug his recordings on a radio broadcast. His radio performance was the second commercial radio performance by a Country musician- Fiddlin’ John Carson beat him only by a few days! [Clayton McMichen was probably the first Country musician to play on radio- but it was a private broadcast, not on a commercially licensed station.]
Addition Recordings with Family Band- 1929- A Typical Performance
Eck taught his son Eck Jr. (Dueron) banjo and his daughter Daphne guitar and on August 12, 1929 the Robertson family recorded a session for Victor. Ralph Peer was now with Victor and held the session in Dallas. The group featured Eck (fiddle) and his wife Nettie (guitar) with their son Dueron (tenor banjo) and daughter Daphne (guitar) and included J.B. Cranfill (fiddle). The songs included “Texas Wagoner,” “There’s a Brown Skin Girl Down The Road Somewhere,” “Amarillo Waltz” and “Brown Kelly Waltz.”
At the next Dallas session on Oct. 10-11 and 20 Robertson and his family recorded his “Brilliancy Medley” and their only ballad “The Island Unknown.” The stock market crash and subsequent contract disputes, Eck saw little gain from his efforts. However, he did enjoy a limited radio career in Texas, performing occasionally for WBAP in Fort Worth and other unknown stations.
Here’s report of a Robertson family concert taken from his CD liner notes: The dusty little town of Baird is located in central Texas, a few miles east of Abilene, and in November 1929, just a week after the stock market crashed, the citizens there were looking over the new window cards advertising the show at the local theater, the Sigal. On the silent screen was the latest effort from comedian Buster Keaton, "The Cameraman." But more interesting to Texans was the vaudeville program. "Come See! Be Convinced!" the text read. "Eck Robertson (In Person and Family). World's Famous Cowboy Fiddler, Record and Radio Artist. Old Time Melodies, Trick and Stunt Fiddling, Singing and Dancing," it continued, and then asked, "Did You Ever Hear a Fiddle Talk?" If not, here was your chance - and only for forty cents. And along with Eck was his family: 9-year-old Eck Jr. on tenor banjo; "Miss Daphne" on guitar, and 12-year-old "Miss Marguarete" doing "Novelty dancing." And though it was not mentioned on the poster, somewhere during the show, the audience would hear the 42-year-old head of the family, Alexander Campbell Robertson, play his signature tunes like "Ragtime Annie," "Sally Johnson," and "Sally Gooden." And some of them would remember that the man making the fiddle talk was also possibly the best fiddler in the state of Texas at that time, winner of dozens of contests, a musician so respected that when he merely entered a contest the promoters would advertise it as a draw to get the fans in. And after this concert, and hundreds like it across the Southwest, some listeners would in fact "be convinced" that they were seeing something special - one of the premier fiddlers in American history, at the very peak of his abilities.
1930s and 40s
In the 30s he tried to get Victor to record him but they weren’t interested, preferring to focus on brother acts, western swing bands, and established artists like Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family. Eck also had contract disputes with the company over the November 1929 recordings. The Depression years (1929-1936) curtailed recording for all but the most popular artists. Eck focused on his family band, which he kept together until the 1940s.
Eck promoted himself heavily as the "World's Famous Cowboy Fiddler, Victor Record and Radio Artist" during this time, and advertised the family band as "A Novelty Musical Program Playing Old Time Melodies, Trick and Stunt Fiddling, Singing and Dancing," and promised, "If You Don't Laugh, We Will Call the Doctor!"
During the 1930s and 1940s Robertson lived in Panhandle, Texas, where the following family tragedies ensued. Daphne, his daughter, died of pneumonia in 1931, and his son, Dueron died in the war in 1944. Eck was the consummate musician. Roxie Hough tells of Eck's reaction on hearing the news of the death of his mother, September 27th 1939: “When grandma Robertson died Uncle Eck was playing at Brownfield when she passed away and as he couldn't get a bus out until nearly midnight he went ahead with the program and dedicated it to her. We moved to Brownfield two years later and they were still talking about how impressed they were with his performance after he had the bad news about his mother.”
In September of 1940 Robertson did attempt to record again with the Sellers transcription studios in Dallas, which resulted in marginal achievement. Later in the 1940s he reportedly recorded over 100 songs for radio which have never been found.
“I remember Uncle Eck's visits to our home in Crowell, Texas when I was younger” said Kenneth W. Hough. “On his visits we would stay up half the night and listen to him play the fiddle and tell stories. On one occasion I remember my Grandfather (Vird Robertson) played the banjo and sang while Uncle Eck played the fiddle. I always enjoyed Uncle Eck's visits because he always had some interesting stories to tell and he would always play his fiddle. It wasn't till I was older that I realized just how much talent Uncle Eck had. The first time I remember someone telling me I had a very important Great Uncle was when a neighbor called me over to her house to show me a TV show that my Great Uncle was playing on. I don't remember the show, but Uncle Eck played the fiddle and did a lot of tricks using the fiddle.”
Later Life
Eck and "Nettie" stayed busy with their family and raised their grandson Alvis. Their children were: Daphne Robertson/Wood - Daphne married a Wood and had at least one son, Alvis J. Wood who was raised by Eck after Daphne died; Alvis had at least one son name Rodney Wood; Marguarete Robertson; Dueron Robertson died in 1944 in WWII, his plane was shot down over France; Odessa Robertson/Henderson; Beulah Robertson/Davis; Audrey Robertson/Winters; Donna (Donnie) Robertson/Barnard; Bobbie Robertson/Henderson and Jack Robertson.
Eck continued to perform and fiddling contests and vaudeville shows with an occasional appearance on regional radio and television shows. Eck never again received real national exposure though and even his closest relatives often didn't fully realize the level of his talent.
Despite his relative obscurity, Robertson reaped a few benefits from the 1960s folk revival and recorded some documentary material in 1963 when members of the New Lost City Ramblers sought him out. In 1964 Eck performed at the UCLA Folk Festival. In 1965 he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. At Newport he was unable to support the fiddle without the help of a rope tied around his neck. He joked that he needed the rope to keep him from "falling off the stage." His recording of "Forked Deer/Eighth of January" with the New Lost City Ramblers appeared on Vanguard Records. John Cohen traveled from New York to Texas to record Eck and his version of Sally Gooden is almost identical - note for note - with the version that he made in 1922 and which can be heard on County CD 3315.
In 1968 Eck wrote to his brother "Vird" Robertson expressing concern for his brother's condition and complaining about his own declining health. The letter was found among the belongings of his brother Granville "Skoot" Robertson:
“1414 B. E. 10th, Amarillo June 7th 68.Vird I'm so nervous I can’t write. I hope you are doing better by now. I'm worse than I ever was. I don’t know what to do. I can’t work any on instruments or play at contests. Owe $20.00 on this months rent. Out of medicine too. Cain’t sleep at night at all, cain’t eat but a little at a time and only 2 times a day and only certain things. I'll have to get in a Hospital I guess again...”
Eck final years were difficult. His home in Amarillo was severely damaged by fire and Eck was forced to move into a rest home. "I remember the last time [we saw Eck]” said Beulah Davis. “We took this County Sales record that had dad's tunes and we played them for those old people in the nursing home that day.”
“Eck wanted to know if we had one of his tunes,” said Doyle Davis. “I don't know if it was Wagoner or what - he wanted to know `Who's that fellow playing the fiddle?' Beulah told him `Why, that's you.' `I never played a tune that fast in my life,' he said."
Until his death at the age of 88 on February 15, 1975, in Borger, Texas, Robertson claimed Victor Company had treated him unfairly. Eck's tombstone at the Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Borger, Texas reads: "World's Champion Fiddler." Although Robertson never achieved fame or commercial success through his recording endeavors, he is remembered in Country Music history for being the first to record commercially.
While he was already recognized nationally in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Eck was inducted into the Texas Country Music Association Hall of Fame on October 25th, 2002 along with Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley. The ceremony took place at the VFW Hall in Annaville, Texas. His great-nephews, Julius Petrus Jr. and Keith Petrus accepted the award on his behalf.
Complete Recorded Songs: Apple Blossom; Amarillo Waltz; Arkansas Traveler; Beaumont Rag; Bill Cheatum; Billy in the Lowground; Bonaparte's Retreat; Brilliancy Medley; Brown-Kelly Waltz; Done Gone; Dusty Miller; Eighth of January; Forked Deer; Get Up in the Cool, Great Big Taters; Grey Eagle; Grigsby's Hornpipe; Hawk's Got a Chicken (and Gone); Island Unknown; Leather Britches; Lost Goose; Lost Indian; Ragtime Annie; Run, Boy, Run; Rye Whiskey; Sallie Goodin; Sallie Johnson and Billy in the Low Ground; Say Old Man, Can You Play the Fiddle?; Stumptown Stomp; There's a Brown Skin Gal Down the Road Somewhere; Turkey in the Straw; Yearlings in the Canebrake;