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Smiley Bates Collection - 57 Albums From Original Tapes & CD's, LP's
Smiley Bates Collection - 57 Albums From Original Tapes & CD's, LP's @ 128 - 320 Kbps.
Not All Albums Have Cover Scans
b. Harvey Bates, 16 October 1937, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, d. 8 January 1997, Ontario, Canada. The youngest of 11 children, Bates grew up in a family where music played a major part. His father played fiddle and his mother piano at local square dances and he began to play fiddle as a small boy. After hearing recordings of Hank Snow, he was attracted to the guitar and having mastered it, he later also learned to play dobro, mandolin and banjo. In 1948, he performed with local band Curly Carter And The Mountaineers until, in 1951, he formed his own North Star Ramblers. They played regular radio shows on CJKL Kirkland and CKGB Timmins for five years before moving for three years to play country clubs in the Quebec area. After seven years touring in Ontario, he disbanded and worked mainly as a solo act or with rhythm guitarist Hank Beaman.
Bates recorded a single in 1966 before meeting Jack Boswell, a Toronto record owner and music publisher in 1968. He was impressed by Bates’ vocal and instrumental talents and signed him to Condor Records. Bates arrived for the recordings suffering a hangover but still recorded one vocal and two instrumental albums in less than five hours. In 1969, two further albums followed including Flat-Top Guitar Instrumentals, which demonstrated his outstanding cross-picking guitar playing. In the early 70s, he toured in the Maritime Provinces and played major Canadian Festivals. In 1973, he headlined the All-Canadian Country Show that toured the USA and he was featured for a time on WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1974, his guitar playing impressed dobro great Josh Graves to the extent that he invited Bates to record in Nashville. Bates declined with ‘I have always been a Canadian artist and what I’ve done with record sales has been totally in Canada with Canadian musicians. If American artists want me to record with them, they are welcome to come to Canada and I’ll be happy to work with them’.
Bates continued to play major Canadian venues and the popularity of his records saw a steady stream of albums released. He chose most of the material himself and often leaned on Snow material such as ‘My Mother’ but developed a talent for sad songs that saw him affectionately known as ‘the King of Hurting Songs’. Once, when it was suggested he should modernise and use backing singers and strings, he tried for a day and said, ‘Enough is enough. If people did not like what I sing they wouldn’t buy my records but they do buy them so I must be doing something right’. No further attempts were ever made to modernise his recordings. In 1976, Tee Vee Records marketed an album of 20 of his recordings, the album sold in excess of 100, 000 ? far more that any normal Canadian country artist’s record sales. He marked his 30th Anniversary in the music with Lullabyes And Legends. He also played on other artist’s recordings including playing lead guitar on Benny Martin’s popular Southern Bluegrass Fiddle. When CDs appeared Jack Boswell released Country Tears, an album that drew praise from not only Canadian fans but also some in the UK, Ireland, Europe and Australia. Bates continued to please by his appearances and unselfish help to other artists until he finally lost his battle with cancer and died in 1997. During his career he probably recorded over 80 albums, five of which went Gold. He also recorded two, Et Son Banjo and Reves De Violoneux, as Henry Roi.
Album List (57 Albums)
1966 - Smiley Bates - First Single
1968 - Smiley Bates - 5-String Banjo Bluegrass
1968 - Smiley Bates - Fiddler's Dream
1968 - Smiley Bates - Golden Guitar
1969 - Smiley Bates - Flat Top Guitar Instrumentals
1969 - Smiley Bates - Songs Of The Heart
1971 - Smiley Bates - My Mother
1971 - Smiley Bates - Songs Of Life
1972 - Smiley Bates & Rose & Eddie Poirier - The Best Of Bluegrass
