Texas Jim Robertson - Classic Cowboy Country 1939-54 (2022)

As his name implies, Texas Jim Robertson was a native of the Lone Star State, but made his start singing on radio in his teens while based in North Carolina and he subsequently moved to New York with the NBC network, acting as well as singing on radio. He made his first recordings in 1939, with a break of three years between sessions while he served in the Pacific during WWII, Picking up his career on his discharge, he had a run of country hits in the post-war years. He was a singer in the old-school cowboy style, with much of his repertoire redolent of Texan and western imagery, although he recorded several songs with interesting wartime reference points. This 52-track 2-CD set comprises selected A and B sides from his releases on the Bluebird, Victor, RCA and MGM labels from this era, and features all his career chart entries, including the Top 10 country hits “Filipino Baby”, “Rainbow At Midnight” and “Signed Sealed, Delivered”, and the Top 20 hit “Slipping Around”, the last coming in 1950, a few years before he moved from music to mainstream radio broadcasting in the 1950s. The collection comprises around half of the titles he released on singles during these years, so we trust it provides a nicely representative overview of his output, and it certainly offers an entertaining showcase for his highly distinctive and evocative style of country.