About Us
Chuck Robertson: singer-songwriter, guitarist, and percussionist
Chuck was born in the Philippines during martial law. His father was an American sailor and his mother a migrant from a small island called Rombon in the central indigenous islands of the Visayan Sea.
They moved to the U.S. once his father's deployment was complete where he
Chuck Robertson: singer-songwriter, guitarist, and percussionist
Chuck was born in the Philippines during martial law. His father was an American sailor and his mother a migrant from a small island called Rombon in the central indigenous islands of the Visayan Sea.
They moved to the U.S. once his father's deployment was complete where he grew up on his grandparent's small farm in the head of a holler in Genoa, West Virginia.
His Papaw (grandpa) Gene was a Southern Baptist preacher and the family would often have gospel revivals that lasted days at a time both at home and in nearby towns like Louisa, Kentucky. This is where Chuck was steeped in Appalachian hymnals and the wailing vocal styles of bluegrass legends like Ricky Skaggs, Bill Monroe, and
Doyle Lawson.
His family moved to Memphis, Tennessee where the influences of Elvis Presley and early rock n roll took roots.
Blues legends like Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins, and BB King also became part of his music collection.
He moved to Charleston, South Carolina, then Seattle, Washington and ultimately landed in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia where the imprints of grunge and melodic metal began to shape his musical palette. As the lead singer of a then prominent and rising new band called Wicked Stepchild, Chuck cut his teeth on playing live shows often 3 - 4 times a week throughout Virginia Beach's vibrant music scene.
Years later he would return to Eastern Kentucky and rediscover his Appalachian roots after teaming up with fellow musician and reporter for the Daily Independent newspaper — Tim Preston.
fiddle, vocals
Tim Preston: harmonica player
Kentucky native Tim Preston picked up his first harmonica as a coping mechanism. He needed to quit smoking and figured It might help to pick up the harmonica instead of a cigarette anytime the craving to smoke came on. It also made him chuckle to irritate his band mates with the God-awful sounds that came
Tim Preston: harmonica player
Kentucky native Tim Preston picked up his first harmonica as a coping mechanism. He needed to quit smoking and figured It might help to pick up the harmonica instead of a cigarette anytime the craving to smoke came on. It also made him chuckle to irritate his band mates with the God-awful sounds that came out of the instrument as he was learning.
To everyone's surprise including his own, Tim improved quickly and within six months he won second place in that year's NC Harmonica Championship.
A multi-instrumentalist musician, Preston worked throughout the southern U.S. as both a musician and an award-winning newspaper reporter.
He wrote for the iconic Daily Independent in Ashland, Kentucky where he met Chuck Robertson covering local music.
Preston also served as a reporter for The Mt. Airy News in the real life town that Mayberry - the fictional town on the Andy Griffith Show - was based upon.
He was the editor of both the Olive Hill Times and Grayson Journal-Enquirer and wrote for several other major newspapers before retiring to Thelma, Kentucky in 2022 after his wife, Alys, suffered a series of strokes.
He is now her full-time caretaker and these days enjoys playing Santa Claus , collecting antiques and vintage instruments and, of course, performing with The Chuck Robertson Project.
The song, "Most of All" on their album "Angels and Ghosts" was written by his wife, Alys, and featured Tim singing lead vocals on it
Preston is currently using a typewriter to write his first novel, tentatively titled "Why Do You Want a Typewriter?".
Shirley Seim: fiddle, vocals
Shirley Seim spent the first part of her life in Seattle, Washington. In her early twenties she traveled to the United Kingdom and began busking on the streets of England with a friend from Scotland.
After a few weeks they parted their ways and Shirley made her way to mainland Europe where she played in L
Shirley Seim: fiddle, vocals
Shirley Seim spent the first part of her life in Seattle, Washington. In her early twenties she traveled to the United Kingdom and began busking on the streets of England with a friend from Scotland.
After a few weeks they parted their ways and Shirley made her way to mainland Europe where she played in Luxembourg, Germany, and the Netherlands before settling in Paris, France.
She has also lived and performed in Australia and Tasmania.
After landing in Cattletsburg, Kentucky she has played with bluegrass legend the late great Dave Evans and has since played with 7 Mile Bluegrass band and Moonlight Mile.
Her own original project Sugarbeats with singer/songwriter partner Whitney Hodges reflects her love for rock, country, and even zydeco music which originated in Louisiana in the early 1800s. Zydeco is a blend of French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences.
She met Chuck Robertson in the early spring of 2023 at Masterpiece Cafe in Louisa, Kentucky while scouting the venue for a potential booking for her project the Sugarbeats.
Having been invited by Tim Preston to attend the show she was welcomed to sit in on the show where her incredible improvisation skills and magical fiddle playing impressed Chuck so much that he immediately asked her to be a permanent fixture in The Chuck Robertson Project.
