“Not very often do you run into a record so beautifully rendered as Lori Yates's Matador. The songs contain so much wisdom and are exquisitely sung. That voice is a gift.”
Jim Cuddy, Blue Rodeo
"Matador, sparkles with seductive grooves, wonderfully inventive melodies and finely crafted, emotive-filled, country-inflected vocals. Highlights include the title song, lamenting the loss of Toronto's fabled after-hours haunt, the Matador Ballroom, and the shimmering, wistful opener, "What a Life." Matador is, so far, my favourite album of the year. It just may well be yours, too."
Rob Bowman, Grammy-winning Professor of Music, Feb. 2024
Lori Yates leaves behind more than 20 years of fond memories in Hamilton
Country singer released new album 'MATADOR', SHE PENNED IN HER FORMER HOME ON MARKET STREET.
TORONTO STAR - Toronto's legendary Matador club is gone, but Lori Yates hasn't forgotten
“Toronto singer-songwriter Yates has made an excellent new nine-song album of Canadiana, Matador.” By Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Feb 4, 2024.
BILLBOARD Music Canada
https://ca.billboard.com/music-news-digest-ecma-noms-amanda-rheaume-wavelength-junofest-more
Veteran Ontario country/roots singer/songwriter Lori Yates has announced Jan. 29 as the release date for her new album, Matador. Advance singles have earned a warm response, especially "Time After Time," a tune Yates co-wrote in Nashville with the late great Texan songwriter Guy Clark. The song was recently featured on the AmericanaUK website.
AmericanaUk
https://americana-uk.com/lori-yates-time-after-time-happens-happens-again
Time After Time‘ is a co-write with Guy Clark, so that’s all the credentials sorted. Let’s add in that the recording features the late David Baxter on guitar and members from Toronto supergroup Hey Stella and Blue Rodeo and it’s pretty obvious that we’re on mighty solid ground here.
Lori Yates started out in the 1980s with her cowpunk band Rang Tango, but went on to perform and record with various music legends, including Colin Linden, Jim Cuddy, and Rick Danko (who described Lori Yates as having “that desperate Canadian sound“), additionally, she sang duets with Tom Wilson and Greg Allman and shared a stage with Roky Erickson.
‘Time After Time‘ is taken from her eighth album, ‘Matador‘, which is out this month.
INTERVIEW with Jane Gowan - A Career Retrospective.
https://www.musicbuddy.ca/1817893/13779666
BOB MESEREAU'S TOP 100 CANADIAN BLOG
MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY
Sunday, December 3, 2023
MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LORI YATES - MATADOR
Ontario roots stalwart Yates has been dropping singles in anticipation of the full release of this latest album, due in January, and it's sounding great. Yates helped put alt-country on the map in Canada with major label releases in the late 80s and 90s, did the Nashville thing, met, recorded, and toured with tons of legends, and has calmly put out a ton of great music since. She also formed the Toronto downtown favourites Hey Stella, a beloved live act for the past 25 years featuring Blue Rodeo's Bazil Donovan on bass, drummer Michelle Josef, and the late, beloved David Baxter, producer and pal to so many. Hey Stella features as the core band on this album, recorded before Baxter's passing, and produced by Yates and Rheostatics' Tim Vesely.
Matador is focused on Yates' succinct, world-wise songwriting, which comes across like good advice from a true friend. First single "Alive" acknowledges "all the troubles that I've been through," but reminds us that "It's good to be alive, even when it hurts to be alive." She dips back into her storied past for a late 80s Nashville co-write with the great Guy Clark on the second single, just out, called "Time After Time." That one drips with classic lines, such as "Somewhere down the road to good intentions," and perfect rhymes, like "The best you can do is trust your heart/and call on me if you fall apart." The original version, featured on her 1989 debut album, was produced by Bob Johnston (Dylan, Cohen, Cash, etc.) and this sounds just as vital, the return of an overlooked gem.
If anything can overshadow her songwriting, it's Yates' subtle, impassioned vocals. This is a relatively quiet album, but she brings a muted intensity to songs like "I Loved Ya," which hits just as hard as a full rocker. She seems to hit your heart before your ears, a melancholy moodiness that stays there through the whole album. She can lean back and belt when needed, like in her old cowpunk days, and on the final cut, "Cowboy," she reveals her purest country voice, with a hitch that would make Emmylou Harris a little jealous. Alt-country still rules Queen St. West in Toronto.
