Album Notes

Tony Robertson became interested in playing music around the age of thirteen. He recalls listening to his Dad and his uncles playing some of the old time songs by such greats as Hank Williams, George Jones, and Merle Haggard. The mixture of great Country Legends loved by his parents, along with traditional bluegrass favorites such as Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs and the Country Gentlemen loved by his uncles presented this up and coming youngster with a desire to play music. Robertson is quoted as saying “In the early 70’s my uncles, Lindon Michael, J.W. Michael, tonis Michael, along with Larry McWilliams, and Charles Masonia formed a bluegrass group called “The Dixie Bluegrass Boys”. This group of men would shape, mold and encourage me in ways that they would never have known that they could.” In 1976 Robertson helped to form a group called The Home Made String Band along with his cousin, Sammy Michael, Alan Watkins, a banjo player from Greenhill, Alabama, and a guitarist named Hugh Banks, later replaced by Ricky Rogers. By August the group had changed their name to The Next In Line and won a talent contest at a festival in Barton, Alabama, in which they were awarded a recording session at a small studio located in Fayetteville, Tennessee. After a four year absence from his musical career, 1983 through 1985 found Robertson playing with a dear friend from Killen, Alabama, by the name of Rual Yarbrough, along with Julie York and Ray Hunt. This group of musicians enjoyed playing for audiences at bluegrass festivals as well as many church events. In 1985, after only a few months away from the musical industry, Robertson joined the Flying South Band playing coffee shops, festivals, and political rallies with Scooter Muse and his wife, Nancy Muse, from Florence, Alabama, and Bill Terry, a songwriter at Fame Recording Studios from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The group dissolved in 1988. Robertson began playing with singer/songwriter Jake Landers in 1990. Their group was comprised of Scooter Muse, Jake Landers, Tony Lee, and Larry McWilliams. Robertson and Rogers left the Jake Landers Band in March 2003 to pursue their work with the band, Iron Horse, which had already recorded and released their first CD.