Carson Robison, born on 4 August 1890 in Oswego, Kansas, is being remembered as one of country music's earliest full-time songwriters, dubbed the "granddaddy of the hillbillies." Working continuously from 1924 to 1956, he is regarded as possibly the most recorded singer-songwriter in country music history, according to the National Songwriters Hall of Fame, and played a formative role in shaping the genre's early "event" songs, which chronicled disasters and news of the day.

Robison taught himself guitar, banjo, harmonica and ukulele, and mastered a distinctive two-tone whistle before beginning his professional career at 14. He rose to prominence backing Vernon Dalhart on the landmark 1924 hit "Wreck of the Old '97," later writing many of Dalhart's disaster-themed songs before the pair split over royalties. He went on to form successful partnerships and his own band, Carson Robison's Pioneers, toured the UK and Ireland, and scored his biggest hit, "Life Gets Tee-Jus, Don't It," in 1948. He died in 1957 in Poughkeepsie, New York, aged 66.