|
While
others might think of Texas music
as the domain of guitar players, the fiddle is the instrument that
has most shaped what we identify as traditional Texas
music. The fiddle came to Texas with
cowboys and early settlers because it was smaller than a guitar and
easier to carry on horseback. The same goes for the harmonica and
banjo.
Of the pioneer types who helped establish a standard for Texas fiddle
playing, Eck Robertson deserves the most credit. Robertson, who grew
up near Amarillo
in the late 1800s came from a family of fiddlers, though his father
gave up the instrument when he entered the ministry. In certain social
and religious societies of the day, the fiddle was considered an instrument
of the devil and a talent for playing it could be acquired only through
a bargain with the aforementioned Satan. |
Contrasting
that was a fierce demand for fiddle music, especially in West
Texas where it provided one of the few social diversions available
so far from civilization. That created a bit of a dilemma for early
settlers and especially early fiddlers.
“The fiddler held an unusual position in West
Texas society,” Joe Carr and Alan Munde wrote in their book about
West Texas music, “Prairie Nights to Neon Lights.” “Fiddle music was
prized as one of the few social diversions available. The fiddler
however, was often characterized as lazy, hard-drinking, and generally
worthless.”
|
|
Eck
Robertson made his first fiddle when he was eight years old by stretching
the hide of the family cat over a large gourd. He later traded a pig
for a genuine Sears and Roebuck fiddle and slipped out of the house
at night to play fiddle at local dances because his father didn’t
approve of his fiddling around. Eck left home when he was 16 years
old and started fiddling full time for traveling medicine shows in
Oklahoma.
From what might be considered an inauspicious beginning, Robertson
went on to record in 1922 what are generally considered the first
ever country music recordings. Robertson and an Oklahoma fiddler named
Henry Gilliland decided, for reasons that are unclear, to travel to
New York City and see if the Victor Recording Company would let them
record a few tunes. The idea of recording music for a rural audience
was so radical at the time that we can only guess why the Victor executives
let them cut a few tracks, all of which have endured as classics of
the genre.
Robertson and Gilliand recorded 10 songs including “Arkansas Traveler”
and “Turkey in the Straw.” Robertson played “Sallie Gooden” and “Done
Gone” along with “Ragtime Annie” and one medley, without accompaniment.
His recording of “Sallie Gooden” is generally regarded as the genesis
of the modern style of Texas fiddle playing. |
|
“Done Gone” was written by Matt Brown, whose music was never recorded
but who was a huge influence on all the early Texas fiddlers. J.B.
Cranfil, who knew both Robertson and Brown, related that Brown
wrote “Done Gone” on the side of a lonely highway after the only car
he saw during an entire afternoon of hitch-hiking not only passed
him by but almost ran over him. Who knew that such a lousy afternoon
would transform into art and history in just a few years. |
|
|
Robertson recorded
another set of tunes for Victor in 1928 and later recorded 100 songs
for the Sellers Transcription Studios in Dallas,
but those recordings have been lost, presumably forever. Robertson
kept fiddling after that and worked as a piano tuner and repaired
instruments to round out his living for many years but the wider
world forgot about him until the folk revival of the 1950s.
He appeared at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when he was 78 years
old and later showed up on stage at the UCLA Folk Festival in California.
There was talk of another Robertson recording but nothing came of
it and he drifted back to obscurity in Amarillo.
Burglars robbed him of $50, which must have terrified but definitely
amazed him. “That’s more money than I’ve ever spent on myself at
any one time,” he told a reporter. He moved to a nursing home in
Borger and died there in
1975 at the age of 88.
So the next time you hear the song that says “you just can’t play
in Texas without a fiddle in the band” take a moment to remember
Eck Robertson, who helped make that true.
© Clay Coppedge
"Letters from Central Texas"
May
19, 2010 Column
More Texas
Music ›
|
|
|
HOME
