Biography
Born on 19 March 1942 in Tyler, Texas, Dobson initially intended a career as a novelist. Only in 1963 did he begin playing guitar and composing songs. He performed regularly in Texas folk venues with Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. An encounter outside a Nashville studio with members of David Allan Coe’s band prompted Coe to record “Piece Of Wood And Steel” on the spot. Earnings from labor aboard shrimpers and oil rigs funded his well-regarded debut album, In Texas Last December, which contained “Baby Ride Easy,” later cut as a duet by Carlene Carter and Dave Edmunds. Dobson contributed frequent pieces to the British fanzine Omaha Rainbow, and his novel The Gulf Coast Boys appeared in 1998. Nanci Griffith, who included his composition “The Ballad Of Robin Wintersmith” on one of her own records, has described him as “the Hemingway of country music,” yet wider recognition has remained elusive. His most familiar song, “Old Friends,” co-written with Guy and Susanna Clark, supplied the title track for Clark’s 1988 album. In the early 1990s he joined the Swiss imprint Brambus, and he now resides in Switzerland.
Albums