Jeff Bates

For Jeff Bates, love and redemption rule (May 2006)

Jeff Bates knows a thing or two about the recurrent themes - love and redemption - on his new batch of music, "Leave the Light On." The Mississippi native with the voice that easily recalls the late country singer Conway Twitty has tackled both a number of times throughout his 42 years. And the plain speaking, easy going Bates will not shy away from the topics either. "That was totally what we were going for," says Bates in a telephone interview, referring to the love and redemption  ...

For Jeff Bates, his life is a country song (Jun 2003)

When considering the ingredients for the prototypical country song, how about a character who grows up poor, not knowing who his real daddy is, quits school, holds down a blue collar job or two, encounters brushes with the law and the inside of pokey, drinks and does drugs too much, is on his fourth marriage, but somehow manages to overcome life's travails. Well in the truth is stranger than fiction category, meet Jeff Bates.  ...