Biography
Willard Robison supplied the classic American songbook with several enduring standards through his work as a composer and intermittent interpreter of understated, country-tinged ballads. Among them were “A Cottage for Sale,” “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” “’Tain’t So, Honey, ’Tain’t So,” “Old Folks,” and “Peaceful Valley,” the last of which served as Paul Whiteman’s signature theme. A native of Missouri, he took up the piano in the 1920s and directed various territory ensembles across the Southwest, among them groups that featured Jack Teagarden. Later that decade he cut several dozen sides in New York while fronting Willard Robison’s Levee Loungers and the Deep River Boys; he also appeared on discs issued by Busse’s Buzzards, a studio unit assembled by trumpeter Harry Busse, a standout soloist in Whiteman’s orchestra.
Robison’s signature pieces, notably “Old Folks” and “Deep Elm,” offered spare, sometimes nearly somnolent depictions of everyday existence in rural communities, conveying an unvarnished outlook comparable to that of fellow songwriters Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer. His 1929 tune “A Cottage for Sale,” with words by Larry Conley, proved the most widely adopted of his works, accumulating more than one hundred performances and notable versions by Guy Lombardo in 1930 and Billy Eckstine in 1945. The final major song he completed, “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” reached hit status with Peggy Lee in 1948. Robison additionally authored the piano folio Willard Robison’s Six Studies in Syncopation. In 1962 his longtime associate Teagarden devoted an entire LP, Think Well of Me, to Robison compositions during what would be the trombonist’s penultimate recording date; Robison himself died in New York six years afterward.
Robison’s signature pieces, notably “Old Folks” and “Deep Elm,” offered spare, sometimes nearly somnolent depictions of everyday existence in rural communities, conveying an unvarnished outlook comparable to that of fellow songwriters Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer. His 1929 tune “A Cottage for Sale,” with words by Larry Conley, proved the most widely adopted of his works, accumulating more than one hundred performances and notable versions by Guy Lombardo in 1930 and Billy Eckstine in 1945. The final major song he completed, “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” reached hit status with Peggy Lee in 1948. Robison additionally authored the piano folio Willard Robison’s Six Studies in Syncopation. In 1962 his longtime associate Teagarden devoted an entire LP, Think Well of Me, to Robison compositions during what would be the trombonist’s penultimate recording date; Robison himself died in New York six years afterward.
Singles
