Other 'Walt Robertsons'???

Subject: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 03:37 PM

In Febuary of last year, I started a thread titled "Tales Of Walt Robertson." It proved popular. Art Thieme just revived it. Before I started that thread, I did a little preparation and alerted several people that were also strongly influenced by Walt, including Don Firth. Don and I talked very little during the life of that thread. Our postings were quite spontaneous and that added a lot to the fun.

My question is this: surely there are a lot of other "Walt Robertsons" out there. Who influenced you strongly? Would you be willing to do your homework, perhaps contact others who were also influenced, and start a thread? There must be many others and I'd like to learn of them.

CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 10:13 AM

How about early stories of current icons like Utah Phillips and Pete Seeger - without giving away any secrets or jeopardizing a friendship.

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 11:24 AM

Bob and Don,

Thanks for all you told us about Walt. There are people, of course, who probably have influenced some of us as much. I, for one, am not usually easily self-motivated. I was when I've talked about PAUL DURST here. Utah Phillips and Bob Gibson too -- and some others. I wonder if our associations with these people and our "being there" at those incandescent times, moments in history, might have made these people more than the sums of their parts. They were our youth---our memories---our early adventures into politics, testosterone and estrogen driven super nova times with early love.

What I am saying, partly, is that I found all of the thread about Walt just grand. At the same time, I found his recorded music didn't live up to the high expectations you all had given me. I hadn't had the appreciation for his music when I first listened to him in the 60s----and I wanted to give him another chance now. My reaction now is, once again, pretty much, blah.

I mean no offense. Just another take.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 12:30 PM

Art,
I felt the same way. I bought both CDs and sat down expecting to be moved to tears. Instead I kept skipping from cut to cut confused. Maybe it was his innovation that made him such a strong influence???? Maybe the recording techniques have improved??? I was disappointed.

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 01:33 PM

Follow up thought:
I unearthed a copy of "Island Bound" and found Walt to be uncomfortably sexy. He dominated his scenes. Not pretty, not even handsome but very sexy. Maybe that explains it.

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 01:48 PM

I know what you mean about Walt's recordings. I think this is not an unusual phenomenon with a lot of singers. Walt's really strong suit was live performance. I saw him many times in concerts. He could hold an audience completely enthralled for nearly three hours, and at the end, they would call him back for encore after encore. He was quite charismatic, but for some reason, it just didn't seem to come across on his records.

It may very well have been the recording studio situation. I think Walt needed the stimulation of a live audience, and the recording engineer and a functionary or two who were reading meters and twisting knobs and not really paying attention to him while he sang just didn't turn him on. I think Walt was aware of this to a degree. I don't know the circumstances of how he did his first record, American Northwest Ballads. Mose Ashe may have recorded it in New York, and I've heard that Ashe tended to try to get the whole thing in one take. But the second, Walt Robertson Sings American Folk Songs, was recorded at a studio in West Seattle and several of us—myself, Patti, and three or four others—were there at the time. Walt wanted an audience to sing to rather than just some guy in a glassed in booth with his head down. I think this one is a bit more alive, but it still didn't come off the way Walt wanted it to.

I remember that this was another "one take" situation, and at the time, we (including, apparently, the guy that owned the recording studio) thought that was the way records were done! I didn't learn otherwise until about four or five years later when a fellow I knew, Bob Weymouth, a local pop singer, wanted me to play lead guitar on a couple of songs he was recording. Sometimes a whole day might be spent on getting no more than one or two songs (Weymouth and I and the rest of the combo did about umpteen takes on each song). And then they often diddle with the tape after that! But at the time, Walt didn't know—none of us out here in the tall and uncut knew—and he didn't have the benefit of record producers who did.

Now a Walt Robertson in Concert, taped live, would have made one helluva record!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Other 'Walt Robertsons'???
From: Deckman
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 02:23 PM

Art ... Man, can you WRITE. "...being there at those incandescent times, moments in history, might have made these people more than the sum of their parts." When I see writing this good, I just want to pack up my box of crayons and steal away, very quietly.

I also agree with everything else that's been said. BUT, I'd like to get away from the subject of Walt.

For example, there were a couple of other people that did influence me some, but I was never able to hang around them very long. One of course was Pete Seeger, and the other was Guy Carawan.

I only knew Pete briefly when he stayed at my house for three days, back in the fifties. It was that experience that led to my quitting college and traveling and singing for a while. (even though he almost begged me to stay in school).

I saw Guy Carawan a couple of times in Seattle, and for one weekend on a mountain top in Canada (remember that weekend Don?). But as he lived in Tennesee, and I didn't, I never got the chance to learn from him.

Another influence was of course the late Roy Guest, from England.

So, let's hear some of the stories, please. CHEERS, Bob