Anywhere But Nashville by Billy Yates

"I suppose we were fairly poor, even in that small community, but we always had everything we needed and I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything".

Yates began singing harmonies while digging into his parent's record collection -- a stack which included plenty of Jim Reeves, Ernest Tubb, George Jones, Mac Wiseman, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and the Louvin Brothers. "That sort of evolved into listening to artists like Emmylou Harris and Don Williams later on," Billy says.

Although Yates would occasionally sing a song or two at weddings or the county fair, he insists he was still too shy to feel comfortable performing in public. That reluctance changed suddenly after his high school graduation when he visited the Lake Wappapello Opry, a family oriented show in Wappapello, Missouri.

"I watched the show and I remember my stomach being tied in knots because I wanted to be on that stage so bad," he explains. "After the show, I went to the lady who owned the place and somehow got the courage to ask, 'When do you hold auditions?' This was in the early part of the theater's season, so I figured they weren't looking for another singer anytime soon."

Yates wasn't prepared when the owner responded, "We can do an audition right now, so come backstage". He says, "I was thinking, 'What am I gonna do now?' I went backstage and all the people who were in the show were standing in a circle. At that point in my life, these people were bigger than life to me". After an impromptu performance of "Cryin' My Heart Out Over You," Yates was hired on the spot and started working there the next weekend.

During his three years on the show, Yates began making trips to Nashville before going to West Plains, Missouri to be a regular performer at another music theater. "It was sort of a spin-off of the Branson-type shows," Billy admits. "But it helped me work through a lot of the nervousness of performing while figuring out what an audience wants. You get your chops as a singer by singing, so that was a great place to learn".

With the intention of securing a college degree, Yates later moved to Poplar Bluff, Missouri. "I enrolled in a junior college, which I attended for about two weeks", he says. "I had a reading problem. School had been hard, but I always had a lot of friends and was involved in all the high school activities. But college was really difficult for me".

He had noticed a barber school around the corner from his apartment. "Dad was a barber and had always encouraged my brother and I to learn a trade."

He enrolled, got his license, and returned to his hometown, where he cut hair for five years in his own shop just down the street from his dad's two-chair business. "I was cutting hair, playing music on the weekends, and working seven to midnight at the local FM station, KOEA, in the same building where we had done the Sunday morning broadcast years before on the AM station. I really grew up in that radio station. In my spare time, I'd go back to the record library and start pulling old records to learn the names of all the musicians and producers".

After years of contemplating a move to Nashville, he arrived in town in 1987. His father's advice about learning a trade was useful. While singing demos and learning the songwriter's craft, Yates used his barber's license to support himself and his wife, Nancy.

He eventually landed his first writer's deal with Hori Pro Entertainment Group. "When I got there, I only had a song or two that was any good," he admits. "Within just a couple of months, I had written probably 10 or 15 songs".

Out of those first few songs came the George Jones hit and 1993 CMA Vocal Event of the Year, "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" along with the title cut of that same album, "Walls Can Fall".

Getting George Jones to record your song is perhaps the most coveted honor for any Nashville songwriter. Those who have written countless hits for other artists openly admit that a track on a Jones album is their greatest dream.

After years of struggling in Nashville, the initial recognition made Yates realize the importance of unceasing optimism in the midst of hard work. "Had I given up within my first five years here, nothing would have happened", he says.

Plenty has happened since then, including four more song recorded by George Jones, including the Grammy nominated hit "Choices", along with other cuts by George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Gary Allan, Tracy Lawrence, Doug Stone, Ricochet, Ricky Van Shelton, David Allan Coe and others. He also found a lucrative sideline writing and singing jingles for firms including Chevy Trucks, Ford Trucks, Kellogg's, Slick 50, Heinz 57, and Pepsi Cola. He's thankful for all of his successes, but Yates never abandoned his desire to become a recording artist.

"It's what I came to Nashville to do," he says. "I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. It takes a while to get a level head and go after it with the right perspective".

After recording the critically acclaimed self-titled album 'Billy Yates', which included the hit "Flowers", for the now defunct Almo Sounds label, Yates went on to record for Columbia Records and is now recording for his own M. O. D. Record Label. "Out of the freedom that I've been given as a songwriter, I feel like I've been able to develop an honesty in my music," he says. "When it comes to writing, I can't do it if I'm not in the frame of mind. I've never liked things to be contrived". When you listen to his music including his latest self-produced recording "Anywhere But Nashville", you'll have to agree that there is nothing contrived about Billy Yates' music.

Having had the experience of traveling all over the country performing at various venues in nearly every state, including more than a dozen appearances on the world-famous Grand Ole Opry, Yates is now taking his music across the water where he will perform at nearly 50 festivals and events in Europe this year. "The country music fans of Europe are so passionate and love the music so much that it's an absolute thrill to perform in front of them", says Yates who's foreign single release, "Anywhere But Nashville" is currently burning up the European country music charts.

When asked how he developed his down-to-earth philosophy to his career, Yates recalls his childhood and the days he spent shining shoes in his dad's barbershop. "I had shined shoes there for a year or two. The dime store was just up the street and every time I'd get a little bit of money, I'd go up there and spend it. One day, my dad told me, 'Son, when guys come in here, they want their shoes shined right now. They don't want to wait until you get back from the dime store. If you don't start staying here, I'll get somebody else to shine shoes.' "I figured, 'Yeah, this is dad talking. He's not gonna fire me.' So I'd still skip out and hang out in the dime store or the soda fountain next door. When I walked down from school a few days later, there was another kid in the barbershop shining shoes".

"That's when I realized that you have to keep up your end of the deal. I don't care if it's your dad or anybody else. If you don't work hard at what you do, you'll lose your gig".

"That's how I approach my music".

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