Often plays with Clayton Yates, Josh McCallen, Martin Chapman & Dennis Delorme.
Jim, Dennis & Clayton
Also plays with Ted Staunton and an ever changing variety of players as the TLC Jug Band
Jim, Ted & Ian McKeown's trombone slide
Influences
In no particular order: All of the band members listed above, Bernie Martin, Jackie Washington, Bob Snider, Todd Snider, Spider John, Snaker Ray, John Hammond Jr., Hank Williams, Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers (the cowboy singer), Roy Rogers (the slide wizard), Washboard Hank, Gene MacLellan, Bob Brozman, Bob Carlin, Rory Block, Bryan Bowers, Roy BookBinder, Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Utah Philips, LeadBelly, Bob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III, Clarence White, Louis Armstrong, Ola Belle Reed, Billie Holiday, Vi Redd, John Hartford, Mississippi John Hurt, Fred J. Eaglesmith, Karen Dalton, David Essig, Willie P. Bennett, Mose Scarlett, Yank Rachell, Gus Cannon, Pink Anderson, Will Shade, Geoff Muldaur, Hammie Nixon, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Sleepy John, Guy Clark, New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger, John Cohen, Ken Whiteley, Chris Whiteley, Tom Waits, Dave Van Ronk, Elizabeth Cotton, Dan Hicks, The York County Boys, The Greenbrier Boys, Johnny Young, Rev. Gary Davis, Carl Martin, Skip James, Jim Kweskin, Ry Cooder, David Bromberg, Cheap Suit Serenaders, Jorma Kaukonen, Hazel Dickens, Cathy Fink, Oscar Brown Jr., Hub Nitchie, Janet Davis, Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar Book, my family, about every musician I've ever played with or listened to.
Maggie & Jim at Cobourg's Waterfront Festival sometime in the late nineties
JIM YATES comes from a musical family. His father was a singer, he is married to a musician, his four siblings all play music, his two sons and all of his nephews and nieces are involved in music. Even the family sewing machine was a 'Singer'. He started playing music on a ukulele that a cousin forgot at his home and bought his first guitar circa 1960. Over the years he has added banjo, mandolin, Autoharp, accordion, concertina, bouzouki, mountain dulcimer and mouth harp to his arsenal. He also owns a fiddle, but plays it only in the privacy of his own home when his wife is at work and the cats are both outside.
During the sixties he played folk music at hootenanies in school gyms and church basements in the Hamilton area. His introduction to bluegrass was seeing the York County Boys at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia during the early sixties.
Jim & Clayton circa 1977
Jim & Darcy circa 1977
In the wilder days of the sixties Jim also played with the fledgling Velvet Underground when they came to Hamilton's McMaster University as part of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable. *
After moving to the Port Hope/Cobourg area in the early seventies, he played in several folk, bluegrass and Celtic groups and became involved with promoting acoustic music through Folk At The Forum and the Waterfront Festival. Jim teaches guitar, banjo and mandolin and has had articles and arrangements published in the Banjo Newsletter and the Autoharpoholic Magazine. His tune Robbie Burns' Day has been recorded by the Peterborough folk group Freshwater Trade and by Fiddlin' Zeke Mazurek.
Jim plays eclectic acoustic music with Al Kirby as part of the duo Kirby & Yates. Jim and Al also play with Zeke Mazurek as The North Shore Ramblers.
Jim, Ted Staunton and a variety of players on washboard, tuba and trombone have been performing as the TLC Jug Band.
Jim also sometimes sits in with the Otonabee River Boys, and he is always an enthusiastic participant at the annual jam gathering of the Yates Clan.
* There were no musical instruments involved. He was helping out McMaster's Arts Festival Commitee and after the concert Jim and his brother Bob played frisbee with the band members while the stage was struck. Jim says,"At least it makes a great story."
There's a midnight train rollin' somewhere tonight
And Jackie's strumming like a steel-driving man, Good Lord,
Jackie's strumming like a steel-driving man. *
So long Jackie!
*by Colin Linden
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yeh i figured that out after i had sent u that friend request but my browser wont open it. ill try it on my other browser and c if it works k Thanks!!!
I'm waiting, Jim. I'm waiting for you to put some banjo up on your page. You can't use that picture forever as a tease. We know you can play it. Let us hear it!
Hi Jim, Every once in a while I pick a MySpace friend and give a close listen to what's on their page (not just a check-it-out, or plaing in the background while my mind is elsewhere). I tried to do that with your page while I was in Tanzania, but the Internet connection was just too slow. Now that I'm back, I just sat down and listened to your stuff, and I wanted to let you know how excellent I think it is. It's a real pleasure to have made your acquaintance virtually here, and I hope the occasion may someday arise when I get a chance to see you play somewhere in person. The ending of that song "Complicity" really reached out and grabbed me. It's a touching song. By the way, I always enjoy reading your comments in the Forum.
Hello Jim, that's a great sound you got there. My daughter (almost 3yrs) has given her approval by dancing the gig to 'Rabbie Burn's Day'. She said "This music makes me happy!!" Thanks for the add!
Hey Jim; thanks for your best wishes and your help setting up! C'mon back and visit us ... we've started putting a bit of meat on the bones! Strictly Rhythm.
It sounds nice here, I like your music. One thing though, it's Rabbie Burns, or Robert if you want to be proper. His birthdays not to far away, good excuse for some whisky drinking.
Cheers, Jim. Great to get in touch with you. That's some serious musical family you have goin' on - I bet Christmas holidays are amazing. Your music sounds great, and maybe we can sit down one day and play out some tunes together!
Oh, and if bluegrass is your yen, check out a buddy of mine. Ira Pelletier is on my "top friends" list on my own page. He's a serious mando player out in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We grew up together playing grunge music and learning about stringed instruments. He's certainly gone a far way from playing hardcore punk on the bass - well worth a listen.
Hey Blep --- Thanks for the postings on my comments page. I just saw them for the first time a moment ago --- my computer has been on the blink for the last month or so (and I must say that after the first couple of days of a feeling of inconvenience it became a space of freedom. I recommend computerlessness and will probably self-impose a computer fast on myself for a month or so every year from here on out. Can't wait to see the balalaika --- it looks good. Thanks again. Yourn, Blep
Online Now!![The Oldest Child [Enjoyed the FALL season]](http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/44/s_440e9f84cd8b432fb8146ad38d726b99.jpg)
