Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Texas Jim Robertson

Artist: Texas Jim Robertson
LP: Golden Hits of Country and Western Music
Song: "Slipping Around"
[ listen ]

This 6' 3" baritone was born in Texas either in 1909 if you believe his bio page at Hillbilly Music, or in 1916 if you'd rather trust the LP liner notes, included below. I bet it's 1909. In any case, lanky and amiable singing cowboy Texas Jim Robertson evidently slipped around between Texas, North Carolina and New York quite a bit before his stint in the Marines during WWII, after which he settled in Nyack, New York with his wife, Marianne.

Country and Western music has come a long way from
the back country barn dances to the small radio stations
right into the hearts of the city folks. This was not only
due to the quality and interest of the songs but also to
the high standards set by the performers in this field.
When we discuss high standards, we immediately
come to the name, Texas Jim Robertson
.

Let's examine this 6 foot 3 inch baritone. Born in 1916 on
his folk's ranch in Batesville, Texas, he was christened
James Battle Robertson. Instead of a crib he used a
saddle. Tex claims he learned to ride a horse before
he knew how to walk
.

He was such a big boy for his age that his dad put him
on as a top-hand for the summer of his eleventh birthday.
That's an awful lot of riding and roping for a boy that age.
No trouble for Tex, he took it all in his long steady stride
.

When Tex turned 16, he went to visit an aunt in Bat Cave,
North Carolina. There was so much fun to be had that he
had it all and that included spending the money Tex had
put aside to get back to Texas. Needing money for that
return trip, he looked around. No one required a cowboy
on their tobacco farm. There just wasn't any rodeos he
could enter where he might win his passage home. The
want ads weren't enticing but he kept on looking till one
day a Goldsboro paper ran the following ad. "Wanted—
guitar playing cowboy singer—must be authentic and sing
songs of the west. Knowledge of radio technique helpful
but not necessary for the right man." The address
was a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina
.

Well, part of Jim's training included playing the guitar,
banjo and mandolin. His dad taught him all that plus
the kind of songs every cowboy had to know. Tex
visited with the Program Director of the radio station
in Charlotte. He never calls on anyone, he always visits
with people. Jim started work the next day. The radio
audience loved him. N.B.C. heard of this love and
brought him into New York for his first network show
where he remained. Then, he became an actor...re-
member the deep low male voice on "Lone Journey,"
"Against the Storm," "Death Valley Days" and the villain
on "Dick Tracy," they were great radio serials. The year
was 1937, he was popular, successful and in love—her
name was Marianne. The year is 1959, he is still popular,
successful and in love and she's still the same Marianne
he married in 1937. Finally, World War II, the Marine
Corps and the South Pacific, the area not the musical
.

Back home again, the American people did
not forget a great talent
.

[ Texas Jim Robertson: February 7, 1909 — November 11, 1966 ]

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