“I have so much respect for those who came before me, and I’ve had a lifelong obsession with both blues and soul… I have so many influences at this point that they all kind of merge together to create my own sound. It’s an amalgamation of so many different influences.“

Yates McKendree:

Need To Know (The Blues)

Born in Nashville and raised in a recording studio, multi-instrumentalist Yates McKendree grew up hearing and playing with some of Music City’s greatest musicians. Self taught from the age 3, music came to him naturally. Although still just a young man of 23 years, his experience as a professional musician goes back over a decade. That early experience includes playing regularly in some of Nashville’s most notable venues. It also includes North American and European tours and multiple appearances on national television. During Yates’s teenage years, he played on and engineered dozens of recordings in his father’s (Kevin McKendree) studio, The Rock House; most notably for Delbert McClinton and John Hiatt, who told Rolling Stone Magazine, “Yates was our secret ingredient.” In January 2020, Yates earned a Grammy Award for his role as an engineer and a musician on Delbert McClinton’s “Tall Dark & Handsome”. In 2023, the award winning McKendree released his debut LP, “Buchanan Lane” on Qualified Records.

(Yates McKendree / Photo © by Anthony Scarlati)

13-tracks “NEED TO KNOW” (2025) is his follow-on album, featuring all new originals co-written with Gary Nicholson along with handpicked covers of classic tunes. In between touring and his Monday night residency at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe, Yates managed to find time to write and record another album of original songs, deep blues and R&B. “Need To Know” highlights Yates’s skills, remarkable style and taste as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with an emphasis on guitar. Because of Yates’s lifelong, intense dedication to blues and roots music, he has developed a direct line from his soul to whatever instrument he holds. When he sings and plays, you don’t just hear it, you feel it…deeply. Yates and his band are looking forward to playing the blues for you!

Interview by Michael Limnios              Archive: Yates McKendree, 2023 Interview

Special Thanks: Betsie Brown (Blind Raccoon)

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process? 

Well, really I think more or less it’s just the experience I’ve gained from doing it since I was a kid, and playing with so many different people… The knowledge I’ve gained from that is irreplaceable. I’d say the thing that has steadily remained the same is my passion and love for American roots music, specifically blues.

Currently you’ve one more release with Qualified Records. How did that relationship come about?

During the start of the pandemic in 2020, as musicians, my dad Kevin McKendree, and I, had to rely on our recording studio for work, since of course we weren’t able to tour and/or play live. So, my dad decided to team up with a good friend of his to start a label, for musicians, by musicians. That label is Qualified Records, and it’s truly been an amazing thing since!

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album Need To Know?

So, on the song “Tide”, the main percussion you hear in the background is actually a loop my dad recorded of me banging on a washing machine when I was five or so.. We always tried to find a use for it over the years and never could, until I just spontaneously came up with the guitar part one day in the studio, and the rest is history. I overdubbed bass and organ on top of it, had our good friend George Sluppick put some extra percussion on it, and bang, that’s “Tide”!

“Well, really I think more or less it’s just the experience I’ve gained from doing it since I was a kid, and playing with so many different people… The knowledge I’ve gained from that is irreplaceable. I’d say the thing that has steadily remained the same is my passion and love for American roots music, specifically blues.” (Yates McKendree / Photo © by Anthony Scarlati)

Your work is known for creatively reimagining blues/soul tradition. How do you balance respect for the roots with experimentation?

Well, I have so much respect for those who came before me, and I’ve had a lifelong obsession with both blues and soul... I have so many influences at this point that they all kind of merge together to create my own sound. It’s an amalgamation of so many different influences.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

Making streaming fair for all artists and musicians, and doing away with the necessity of social media to be successful as an artist/musician!

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

Well, musically I just do what I love, and hope people my age pick up on it, and the passion and love I have for it. I believe that blues, soul, all American roots music is as relevant today as it ever was. It’s incredibly relatable and emotional, it’s just not as mainstream as pop, or rock. I believe if it was just put in front of more eyes and ears, it could have the potential to be a lot more popular than it is now.

How do you approach the process of songwriting, and are there any specific themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music?

 Songwriting tends to be a fairly spontaneous thing for me, just whatever pops into my head. I’m thankful to have some great songwriting partners like Gary Nicholson to help spur my creativity and put things together in a way that makes sense. Honestly, like most blues/soul music, a lot of my songwriting is based on what I’ve been through, mainly personal life experiences. That’s not always the case, but 90% of the time it is.

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(Yates McKendree / Photo © by Anthony Scarlati)