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{{short description|American songwriter}}
{{Infobox musical artist
|name=Willard Robison
|image=Willard Robison.jpg
|background=solo_singer
|birth_date={{Birth date|1894|09|18}}
|birth_place=[[Shelbina, Missouri]], U.S.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sullivan|first=Steve|title=Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQglDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195|date=17 May 2017|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-5449-7|page=195}}</ref>
|death_date={{death date and age|1968|06|24|1894|09|18}}
|death_place=[[United States]]
|genre=[[Jazz]]▼
|occupation=[[Composer]], [[songwriter]], [[vocalist]], [[pianist]]
|associated_acts=[[Jack Teagarden]]<br>[[Nina Simone]]<br>[[Peggy Lee]]<br>[[Bing Crosby]]▼
|label=[[Perfect Records]]<br>[[Pathé Records]]<br>[[Columbia Records]]<br>[[Harmony Records]]<br>[[Victor Records]]<br>[[Master Records]]
▲|associated_acts=[[Jack Teagarden]]<br>[[Nina Simone]]<br>[[Peggy Lee]]<br>[[Bing Crosby]]
▲|genre=[[Jazz]]
}}
'''Willard Robison''' (September 18, 1894 – June 24, 1968) was an [[United States|America]]n vocalist, pianist, and composer of popular songs, born in [[Shelbina, Missouri]]. His songs reflect a rural, melancholy theme steeped in [[Americana (music)|Americana]] and their warm style has drawn comparison to [[Hoagy Carmichael]]. Many of his compositions, notably "[[A Cottage for Sale]]", "Round My Old Deserted Farm", "[[Don't Smoke in Bed (song)|Don't Smoke in Bed]]", "'Taint So, Honey, 'Taint So" and "[[Old Folks (1938 song)|Old Folks]]", have become standards and have been recorded countless times by jazz and pop artists including [[Peggy Lee]], [[Nina Simone]], [[Nat King Cole]], [[Billy Eckstine]], [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Mildred Bailey]]. "A Cottage for Sale" alone has been recorded over 100 times.<ref>[{{
==Life and career==
In the early 1920s, Robison led and toured with several territory bands in the Southwest. He met [[Jack Teagarden]] in this period, whom he befriended. In the late 1920s, Robison organized the Deep River Orchestra, later hosting a radio show entitled ''The Deep River Hour'' in the early 1930s.
During the 1920s, Robison recorded extensively for [[Perfect Records]], with scores of vocal recordings accompanying himself on piano (displaying his rather eccentric stride piano style), as well as "Deep River Orchestra" recordings using standard stock arrangements (including many popular and obscure songs) One recording was his fox trot arrangement of George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody In Blue'' on both sides of Perfect 14825 and Pathe 36644.<ref>Art Deco: The Crooners, Various Artists, Sony, CD, 1993. Liner notes by Michael Brooks.</ref>
In [[Alec Wilder]]'s definitive study, ''American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950'', the songwriter and critic writes of Robison: <blockquote>He, if ever there was one, was the maverick among song writers. Everyone loved him and many tried to help him, among them [[Johnny Mercer|John Mercer]]. [[Mildred Bailey]] revered him and sang every song of his she could lay her hands on...He did manage, during his almost euphoric life, to write a few successful songs--''[[A Cottage for Sale]]'', and ''<nowiki/>'Taint so, My Honey, 'Taint So''--but generally his songs were known only to a few singers and lovers of the off-beat and the non-urban song. He had a special flair for gentleness and childhood, the lost and the religious.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950|last=Wilder|first=Alec|publisher=Oxford|year=1990|isbn=0-19-501445-6|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanpopulars00alec/page/460 460–461]|orig-year=1972|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/americanpopulars00alec/page/460}}</ref></blockquote>
In 1926-1927, Robison recorded a series of 8 jazz songs under name of '''American Suite''':▼
Wilder concludes that although Robison's songs may not have significantly influenced the development of American popular song, "[I]f they could so much bolster John Mercer's conviction that there was more to write lyrics about than city life, that the world of memory, of remembered sayings and scenes, was as evocative as the whispered words of lovers, then he did make a contribution."<ref name=":0" />
===American Suite songs===
* "After Hours" (American Suite No. 1) (Perfect 14728/Pathe 36547) 10/1/26
* "Piano Tuner's Dream" (American Suite No. 2) (Perfect 14743/Pathe 36562) 10/22/26
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* "Jubilee"
* "[[A Cottage for Sale]]"
* "[[Don't Smoke in Bed (song)|
* "Down to Steamboat, Tennessee"
* "Guess I'll Go Back Home (This Summer)"
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* "I'm a Fool About My Mama"
* "In A Little Waterfront Cafe"
* "Barrel-House Music"
* "It's Never Too Late to Pray"
* "[[Old Folks (1938 song)|Old Folks]]"
* "The Devil is Afraid of Music"
* "Deep Elm (You Tell 'Em I'm Blue)"
* "(Like a Bird That's On The Wing) I'm Wingin' Home"
* "Peaceful Valley"<ref>Wilder, Alec (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900–1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 11</ref>
* "Dem Deming Blues" ("The Sandstorm Division is Coming") (1918) {{OCLC|10186775}}<ref>''[https://www.loc.gov/item/2009371693/]'' Library of Congress digital images of "Dem Deming Blues" sheet music</ref><ref>''[http://demingnewmexico.genealogyvillage.com/CampCody/hst09.htm Camp Cody
==References==
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==External links==
*[{{
*[https://archivesspace.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/6/resources/186 Willard Robison and His Deep River Boys music library], [[Institute of Jazz Studies]], Rutgers University
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106316 Willard Robison recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robison, Willard}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
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[[Category:Songwriters from Missouri]]
[[Category:American jazz composers]]
[[Category:American male jazz composers]]
[[Category:American jazz bandleaders]]
[[Category:20th-century American conductors (music)]]
[[Category:20th-century American
[[Category:Jazz musicians from Missouri]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century jazz composers]]
[[Category:American male songwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century American songwriters]]
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