ONE of the most prolific songwriters in Australian country music has been honoured for his contribution to the industry.
Country singer and songwriter Ken Robertson, who died in 2021 aged 92, was last month honoured with a place on the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame’s Roll of Renown.
Robertson is the newest addition to the Roll, which was established in 1976 and features legends in Australian country music like Slim Dusty, Chad Morgan and Reg Lindsay.
His 80-year-long career as a country singer-songwriter took him all over the country and even to Europe and Canada, where his records were sold.
However, his early work was composed in the Mallee region where he grew up.
At 13 years old, Robertson penned his first song in the candlelit shed of his family’s Koondrook home.
He wrote almost 4000 songs, with the last of his songs and demos recorded in his home studio in Swan Hill.
Robertson’s daughter, Vicki Robertson, was presented with a brass plaque which will be placed into in the granite rocks that make up the Roll of Renown
“To receive the award was a most amazing experience,” Ms Robertson said.
The country singer-songwriter was also inducted into the Hands of Fame in Tamworth as well as the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame.
“We had also been with dad when he put his hands in the wall of fame,” Ms Robertson said.
Ms Robertson recalls growing up watching her dad working on his craft, saying it was like a “gift that he (Mr Robertson) could not explain”.
“I have seen him write words into the sand on the ground, onto a piece of bark, and frantically grab a pen and paper and wake mum in the middle of the night to excitedly tell her of a song coming through,” Ms Robertson said when receiving the award at Tamworth.
Mr Robertson also got the rest of the family involved.
“The first time I went on stage, I was about four years old, and was on stage in the park in Swan Hill there on the rotunda. He was singing and I was dancing for him with my baby sister’s blanket around my shoulders,” Ms Robertson said.
She said the award was special since her dad was being honoured specifically for his songwriting.
“Writers usually go out and pair up with someone else to write a song together. Then someone has to think of a melody or tune. Dad didn’t have any co-writes, they were all his own words and his own melodies,”
Writing songs was part of Mr Robertson’s daily routine.
“During COVID, he was in hospital, and still wrote songs from hospital,” Ms Robertson said.
Ms Robertson dedicated a speech to her father’s talent and life’s work.
“Those thousands of songs were like words between his heart and his soul – the words which we wish we could all say.”
