biography
Wesley Pryor - Road manager,Drums
Joel Vantassel - Bass,Vocals
Patrick Riddle - Keyboard
Robert Arthur - Guitar,Vocals
Barry Senter - Stage & Lights
Kirk Roth - Mechandise Manager
Aly Cutter - Vocals
Kenny Beard - Manager/Guitar/Vocals
Jeff Bates demonstrated a remarkable musical ability,learning to sing even before he could talk. By age two, he was belting out “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.” “My parents had records by Webb Pierce, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Jean Shepard, and Mama would get Grand Ole Opry boxed sets through the mail. But Elvis was who caught my fancy. When I was about 10, Daddy had cut down a big ol' tree out in the yard and there was a big stump out there. I had a plastic toy guitar that my aunt and uncle had given me. I'd get up on that stump and holler my lungs out on Elvis songs.“Then Daddy found an old black-and-white TV. When I saw Elvis on Aloha From Hawaii, I knew what I wanted to do. I thought he was Superman.That became my fantasy,to be on stage singing.”
By his teens, Jeff Bates was a self-described 'geek.”Poor and shy,he had few friends and was constantly picked on by bullies. When he fought back at age 14, he was suspended from school. “Daddy said,'Well, you're getting too big to go to school anyway.' He was having health problems and couldn't run the bulldozer anymore. So I was to stay home and help him. I'd already run his chain saw and driven his pickup truck by then.” The family was so backwoods that at the age of 17 Jeff had never been outside of Marion County, Mississippi. Hungry to see the world, he joined the National Guard. After that, he took a job on an oil rig. One night, a friend urged him to get on stage at the Colonial Steak House in Columbia, Mississippi. He sang Elvis' “Suspicious Minds,” George Jones' “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and Conway Twitty's “I'd Love to Lay You Down.” “The club owner came up to me and said, 'How would you like to work here six nights a week? I'll pay you $50 a night.' I went in the next morning and quit my oil rig job.”
He moved to Seminary, Mississippi and became a carpenter for a time, continuing to sing on the side. Later on he became a welder, but music continued to be his first love. Wanting to pursue his music more seriously, he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. It was there in 1993 he formed his own band, Southern Storm.Southern Storm started traveling. Eventually we played at least 30 of the 50 states, even Canada. We decided we needed an album,so I started writing because I needed songs for it.Wrote 10 and recorded them in Little Rock in 1995.The album was called "Country Is My Middle Name" by Jeff Bates & Southern Storm. I felt I was ready for Nashville, so we moved here in 1997. For the first time in my life,I felt like I was at home. I really did. Nashville challenged and inspired me.”