Jeff Bates has been kicking around the music circut for over 25 years and has survived personal demons along the way to achieve a level of success that many artists dream of. Over the course of a half-hour, Jeff talked with us about a variety of topics and was particularly passionate about the music industry and, of course, his fans.

The beautiful thing about country music is it's ability to reflect real emotions and are true to life. "Riverbank" from Jeff Bates is one of those songs. See what Roughstock had to say about the new single.

One of the biggest misconceptions that fans often make about musicians is that because they have recorded a CD and have a song or two out on the radio, they must be wealthy. OR at least significantly better off than other people. Jeff Bates recently ran into that epiphany and told a great story about it.

Jeff Bates was on RCA and released two albums on that label. Now he's with the Black River Music Group . He's released his third record and this was the first single from it.

There have been quite a few country records released in the past few months. Here's a round-up of album reviews from artists like Phil Vassar, Lady Antebellum, Becky Schlegel, George Strait and James Otto among others.

Jeff Bates had to overcome a lot in his personal live to even make it as a country star. After two albums on RCA, Bates returns with an interesting new self-titled record.