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Jim has been performing musically on and off stage in one way or another since around 1958. He plays anything with strings which he can carry. With almost no urging, he will sing anything with a tune which he can carry.
 Over the years Jim has either performed in bands with normal names, or fronted ones with unusual names. He played in Lynchburg for a number of years in a band called “Night Life,” noted for their ugly frilly fronted yellow dress shirts and black clip on bow ties. He recently finished a six year stint as bass guitarist/vocalist/fiddler with a Montana band called “Midnite Express,” which has nothing whatsoever to do with Turkish prisons. They are the last band in the state to perform “The Rodeo Song.” If you know the song, you understand why. He also fiddled in the Lynchburg area in “McCabe’s Express,” a band better than they personally ever realized.
Bands of his own design include “The Bogus Brothers,” “The Tobacco Row Stumpjumpers,” “Live Canadian Nightcrawlers,” and “Garden of Joy,” which still performs in the Bloomington, Indiana area and has produced a great recording entitled “Get That Stuff.”
His major musical influences range from The Memphis Jug Band through Jimi Hendrix, and from Bach to Hasil Adkins. Lester, Earl and all the Foggy Mountain boys are in there as well. His greatest personal musical influences have been his father, the Reverend A.M. Robertson, Uncle Bill Livers, an African-American fiddler from Owen County KY, Jerry DeWitt, and Barry Marshall, arguably the hippest jazz musician in the tri-state area, from whom Jim is finally learning something about playing.
He is currently playing with "White Vinegar," a bluegrass band, and hosts bi-weekly Irish sessions at The White Hart in Lynchburg. Jim spends much of his time teaching the Youth of America how to play "Iron Man" and "Smoke on the Water."
Jim’s favorite instrument is whatever he has his hands on at the time, including Big Berta the bass, the bouzouki, fiddle, banjoes, and guitar. He has three degrees in English. Do want fries with that? He’s just happy to be here.
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