Before there was the genre “Country/Western” , or C&W, there was music that was “Country” and music that was “Western”. From the Lone Star State, Texas Jim Robertson, like others such as Cowboy Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers, sang songs for cow punchers, not the Grand Ol’ Opry crowd. This two disc, 52 song collection is a time capsule of sounds that takes you to an era and style that was as home grown as Mom’s Apple Pie.
The earliest sessions from 1939 have Robertson singing like he’s around the campfire, with Elton Britt/g, Blackie Summers/fi JouhnnyCali/g-banj and even a vocal quartet for pure prairie league pieces like “Home On The Range”, “Red River Valley” and the fun “My Pony’s Hair Turned Grey (When My Darling Ran Away”. During and after WWII, he forms his Panhandle Punchers with Andy Sadella/steel, Artie Baker/gcl and Chet Atkins/g for “Signed, Seald and Delivered”, “Mountain Rosalie” and the swinging “Pal IN Palo Alto”. He honky tonks with the best on a fun “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got The Time” and is joyfully avuncular on “A Pretty Woman Is Deadly Weapon”. No fake attitudes, baseball caps or pickup trucks here; this is the music from the Old San Antonio Road.