Jeff Bates

Mississippi native Jeff Bates is the rare country artist who isn’t afraid to spit in the dust and take a stand as a traditionalist, the kind who points to Elvis and Twitty as inspirations, the kind who opens his first CD with the declaration If you … don’t turn it up, it ain’t country enough. With a deep growl and the type of work-worn face that marks him as a guy you don’t step up to unless you’ve been introduced, Bates is courageous enough to launch himself with “The Love Song,” a plainspoken tune with the goal of explaining … well, love itself. He’s also brave enough (and proud enough of his multiethnic relatives) to declare himself a “Rainbow Man,” a genuinely risky stand in a Toby Keith radio world. There’s always a crowd of country fans searching for the next Dwight Yoakam or David Ball; Jeff Bates just might be that man.