Nightlife / Music

Country’s Jeff Bates ready to write his next chapter

By David Burke | Thursday, February 15, 2007 | () comments

(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Country singer Jeff Bates performs Saturday night at Keller’s Ranch in Milan, Ill.

Jeff Bates is anticipating his next step in country music.

The 43-year-old Mississippi native is talking to several different record labels after successfully asking to be let out of his contract with RCA Records last June.

“I wouldn’t say anthing went wrong; a lot went right,” Bates said in a phone interview from Nashville.

“They believed in me and believed in the music. They just have a huge roster over there, and I prefer to be somewhere where there’s not so many people in front of or behind me. They really did a huge service by letting me out of my contract.”

Bates released two albums, “Rainbow Man” in 2003 and “Leave the Light On” in 2006. They yielded two songs in country’s top 5: “Love Song” and “Long, Slow Kisses.”

“I’ve learned not to have any expection of what a song will do or won’t do, especially with the atmosphere of today’s radio scene,” he said of his success. “I just hoped people would like it and they did.”

Bates is taking a self-imposed hiatus, working on songwriting and performing in selected dates, including Keller’s Ranch in Milan, Ill., on Saturday night.

“I’ve always known who I am and what I’m about. The only question was where I was going professionally,” he said. “The answer was just to be me, and show parts of me that I haven’t shown before — maybe take a little bit of the edge off and show a little of the intimacy and tenderness.”

Bates’ only other performance in the Quad-Cities was in April 2003, when he was the first act on Brooks & Dunn’s Neon Circus & Wild West Show at The Mark. He performed the title song from “Rainbow Man,” about being born a mix of Mexican, Native American and African-American blood, and being adopted as an infant by a family of blond parents and children.

He said the song spoke to adoptees, but was too personal of a topic to be a mainstream hit.

“I think before people want to hear that much detail about you, you need to have a bit more success than we did at the time it was released,” he said.

In introducing Bates at The Mark in 2003, emcee Cledus T. Judd compared his voice to a young Conway Twitty. Bates said he gets that comparison frequently, and although Twitty is one of his influences, Bates doesn’t want to be solely compared to the late singer.

“I’ve always been a little edgy. Stylistically, it’s really taken all the elements of what other people want to me and what I want to be out of the picture — and just being me,” he said. “Everybody out there’s influenced by somebody, and I’m no different.”

But of his style, he said, “I go more for the emotion than I do singing pretty. I’d rather sing what you feel.”

Bates said he didn’t expect the workload that came along with a major-label record contract, including traveling to countless country radio stations to promote himself and his album.

“The best advice I can give myself and anybody out there who’s new and coming up would be to be flexible and true to yourself,” he said. “Be who you are and what you are, and don’t let anybody try and change you.”

He said it’s all been worth it.

“What makes this all worthwhile and makes the dream worth living and able to attain is the fans, and the people who love the music,” he said. “They not only know the words of the songs and sing them back to them, but it touches their lives. To be able to make a connection on that level makes every mile, every minute away from home, every disappointment and every drop of sweat worth it.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

If you go

Who: Jeff Bates, with Jimmy Henrich & Western Haze

When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17

Where: Keller’s Ranch, 300 W. 10th Ave., Milan, Ill.

How much: $10 advance, $15 at door

Information: (309) 787-8300