Jim Yates

JIM YATES comes from a musical family. His father was a singer, he is married to a musician, his four siblings all play music, his two sons and most of his nephews and nieces are involved in music. Even the family sewing machine was a 'Singer'. He started playing music on a ukulele that a cousin forgot at his home and bought his first guitar circa 1960. Over the years he has added banjo, mandolin, Autoharp, accordion, concertina, bouzouki, mountain dulcimer and mouth harp to his arsenal. He also owns a fiddle, but plays it only in the privacy of his own home when his wife is at work and the cats are both outside.
During the sixties he played folk music at hootenanies in school gyms and church basements in the Hamilton area. His introduction to bluegrass was seeing the York County Boys at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia during the early sixties.
In the wilder days of the sixties Jim also played with the fledgling Velvet Underground when they came to Hamilton's McMaster University as part of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable.*
After moving to the Port Hope/Cobourg area in the early seventies, he played in several folk, bluegrass and Celtic groups and became involved with promoting acoustic music through Folk At The Forum and the Waterfront Festival. Jim teaches guitar, banjo and mandolin and has had articles and arrangements published in the Banjo Newsletter and the Autoharpoholic Magazine. His tune Robbie Burns' Day has been recorded by the Peterborough folk group Freshwater Trade and by Fiddlin' Zeke Mazurek.
Jim plays eclectic acoustic music with Al Kirby as part of the duo Kirby & Yates. They have recently been joined by Zeke Mazurek to form a trio called The North Shore Ramblers.
Jim also sometimes sits in with the Otonabee River Boys.
* There were no musical instruments involved. He was helping out McMaster's Arts Festival Commitee and after the concert Jim and his brother Bob played frisbee with the band members while the stage was struck. Jim says,"At least it makes a great story."
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Willie P. Bennett
October 26, 1951 - February 15, 2008
So fly away my little bird,
Into the open blue sky
And someday when I get my wings
I'll meet you by and by.
Yes, I'll meet you by and by.
So Long Willie!