Nashville Spotlight on Billy Yates

Nashville Spotlight on Billy Yates: Billy Yates' latest release is titled "Anywhere But Nashville" and it seems to be the theme for his recent success as an artist. Fans in Nashville aren't disregarding him, but the foreign territories can't seem to get enough of Yates' music.

His third annual fan club party, held during CMA Festival week, brought in a bus-load of fans from the UK to the Ernest Tubb Texas Troubadour Theatre. Even complimentary tickets to a big-name celebrity event held the same night couldn't lure the fans away from seeing Yates perform. Yates was joined on stage by Longneck Jones band mates Robby Vaughn and Dave Spires. They performed acoustically for close to three hours with intertwined performances by Ruud Hermans (Dutch Country Music Star), singer-songwriters Thom Shepherd ("Riding With Private Malone," "Without The Song") and Kerry Kurt Phillips ("Almost Home", "Pickup Man," "That's Just Jessie").

Something that can't go unmentioned, the event also featured a new country singer on the horizon, Yates' three-year old son, Grayson Yates. He ran to the stage for his first public performance and with little guitar in hand borrowed songs from writers other than his father. Singing Barney's "I Love You," the "ABC song", "I'm A Little Teapot" garnered cheers from the audience. He asked the audience if they wanted to hear one more. After a thunderous applause, with an "I can get used to this" gleam in his eyes, he encored with the "ABC song" and "I Love You" once more.

Yates indeed stays busy during CMA Festival week in Nashville. Not only did his week include the fan club party but also shows on the Riverfront Stages and an in-store appearance at the Tower Records.