...Sings American Folk Songs

MISC NOTES: Plenty of Robertson's local fans found the energy level of his first album, American Northwest Ballads, to be inadequate. Seattle folk luminary Don Firth agreed in this recollection that he posted online in 2002: "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." [READ MORE]

LOCATION:Seattle
RECORDING PERSONNEL: Walt Robertson (vocals, guitar).
RECORDING STUDIO: Joe Boles Custom Recorders
RECORDING ENGINEER: Joe Boles

FORMAT: disc
SIZE: 12"
SPEED: 33 1/3 rpm
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