ROBERTSON, ALEXANDER (1887-1975). Alexander (Eck) Robertson, legendary Texas fiddler, was born in Delany, Arkansas, on November 20, 1887. At the age of three Robertson and his family moved to the Texas Panhandleqv region and settled on a small farm outside Amarillo. In the nineteenth century his grandfather, father, and uncles often entered fiddler's conventions. 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. In 1906 Robertson married Nettie Levy, a childhood friend. 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. In Richmond, Virginia, at the 1922 reunion, he met fiddler Henry C. Gilliland, and the two performed at the opening ceremony for over 4,000 veterans. Upon realizing their complimentary talents, Gilliland and Robertson traveled to New York in an attempt to record with the Victor Talking Machine Company. Gilliland utilized his contact, Martin W. Littleton, which enabled the two to record what most country music historians consider the first commercial recordings of country music on June 30, 1922. The duets included the famous Arkansas Traveler and Turkey in the Straw. The following day, Robertson returned to the studio without Gilliland and recorded six additional tracks solo, including the popular Sallie Gooden, as well as two tracks that were never released. Victor Company issued a limited release of Arkansas Traveler and Sallie Gooden in September 1922, but not until April 1923 was the disc in wide circulation. Two other records were released later in 1923 and 1924.
Robertson set the trend for future performers, as fourteen Central Texas fiddlers succeeded him by recording commercially in the years shortly following his first recording. After a seven year break in 1929, Robertson recorded again with Victor Company in Dallas, accompanied by his son Dueron, wife Nettie, daughter Daphne, and friend Dr. J. B. Cranfil. Robertson did not experience much success from the recording due to the stock market crash and contract disputes with Victor Company that followed. However, he did enjoy a limited radio career in Texas, performing occasionally for WBAP in Fort Worth and other unknown stations. In the 1930s and 1940s Robertson lived in Panhandle, Texas, where family tragedies ensued. Daphne, his daughter, died of pneumonia in 1931, and his son, Dueron died in the war in 1944. In September of 1940 Robertson did attempt to record again with the Sellers transcription studios in Dallas, which resulted in marginal achievement. Until his death on February 15, 1975, in Borger, Texas, Robertson claimed Victor Company had treated him unfairly. 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (4 vols., New York: Macmillan, 1986). Bill C. Malone, Country Music U.S.A. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Jill S. Seeber
