Album Notes

Willis Lamm had written a few songs about wild horses and other Nevada happenings but had never done anything with them. Willis' wife Sharon suggested he get together with local guitarist Tom Wilhoit and try playing some of these songs. Steel guitar player Al Bates and a diminutive young lady with a huge voice named Tawnie Lee, joined the group. Base, percussion and fill tracks were digitally produced on a lap top computer to make the group sound like a large band.

"Tawnie Lee and the Old Fogies" played a number of charity events in northern Nevada. Since many of the songs were original, the group was constantly asked if they were going to save some of them on a CD. Sharon convinced Willis to give it a try.

Nationally ranked cowboy poet Harold Roy Miller often performed at the same events as the Fogies and soon was collaborating with them on song ideas and providing some interesting lyrics. From all of these activities derived a cache of some pretty decent songs about cowboys and the "western experience" so prevalent in Nevada.

Multiple Grammy nominee Lacy J. Dalton encouraged the group to refine its material and produce an album. Lacy even offered to provide a track for the CD, "Run Mustang Run." Local celebrity Larry McPherson, "The Voice of the Nevada Day Parade," recited Dave Rhodes' famous Pony Express poem "We're the Riders." The various contributions made for adiverse and relevant album of original western music and cowboy poetry.

Engineer Aaron "Merlin" Anderson immediately figured out what the group wanted to portray in sound and he literally made this project feasible through his guidance and expertise.

Before the recording project got started, Tom moved to Missouri. However his influence is still felt in the work performed by the remaining musicians.

Hearts of Iron is truly the accumulated love and dedication of a lot of talented people to western music, cowboy poetry, and the stories that these songs and poems tell.