On this day (November 20) in 1887, Alexander “Eck” Robertson was born in Delaney, Arkansas. After finding his passion for music as a child, he spent most of his life as a traveling musician. After a chance meeting with another fiddler at a gathering of Confederate veterans, he became the first artist to record country songs.
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The Robertson family moved to the Texas Panhandle when Eck was only three years old. There, his grandfather, father, and uncles regularly entered and won local fiddle-playing competitions. When Robertson was still young, his father put down his fiddle to focus on tending to the family farm and leading the local Campbellite congregation as a preacher.
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According to the Texas State Historical Society, Robertson left home at the age of 16. Already a talented fiddler, he traveled with medicine shows, playing across the Southwestern United States. At the age of 19, he married his childhood friend, Nettie Levy. Together, they performed in vaudeville acts, and Robertson continued to enter fiddle competitions.
Eck Robertson Made History After a Civil War Veterans Gathering
Eck Robertson’s father fought with the Confederate Army in the Civil War. As a result, he attended the annual Old Confederate Soldiers’ Reunion in Richmond, Virginia. In 1922, at the age of 45, he met fellow fiddler Henry C. Gilliland. Together, they performed during the reunion’s opening ceremony. They quickly realized how well they worked together.
Fortunately, Gilliland had a contact at the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York. Years later, the company would send Ralph Peer to Bristol, Tennessee, to capture “hillbilly music” from the Appalachian region. Many hail the Bristol Sessions as the “Big Bang of Country Music.” However, Robertson and Gilliland cut a series of classic fiddle tunes five years before those sessions.
Together, they recorded “Arkansas Traveler” and “Turkey in the Straw.” Then, Robertson returned the next day to record six more songs, including “Sallie Gooden.”
Featured Image by Bert Arenson/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
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