Lori Yates

About

The artist

Lori Yates is a Toronto-based singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer whose work spans alternative country, cowpunk, country rock, and roots music. Born in Oshawa and raised partly in Toronto, she began performing in bands in 1978, wrote original songs with the Last Resorts, and formed the cowpunk group Rang Tango in 1986. Her artist-controlled history documents major-label periods with Columbia Nashville and Virgin Music Canada, the country supergroup Hey Stella, and later independent records. After living in Hamilton from 2002, Yates returned to Toronto in 2023. Her current Bandcamp page identifies Toronto, Ontario, and Roots Music Canada independently reported that she moved there full time in 2023. Apple Music also lists Toronto as her current location. Yates's artist-controlled catalog documents Matador, released independently in 2024, and the archival collection LORI YATES (Virgin Rejects '95), released in March 2026. The exact Spotify profile currently exposes 20 album and single containers. Seventeen are retained after identity review: six albums and eleven singles from January 1994 through March 2026. Three 2026 releases titled Frequency, Frequency 2, and Frequency 3 are excluded because they do not appear in the artist-controlled catalog, use incompatible dance-oriented presentation, and could not be tied to this artist. The artist-controlled title The Fear Has Gone appears as The Fear Is Gone on DSPs; that non-critical title variation is preserved in the evidence ledger and omitted from the representative-release set. Representative records include The Book of Minerva, Sweetheart of the Valley, Matador, and LORI YATES (Virgin Rejects '95). Yates co-produced Matador with Tim Vesely, a credit documented by her Bandcamp notes and independently by Roots Music Report and Lonesome Highway. Her official history records a Juno nomination, a Canadian Country Music Association nomination, two Hamilton Music Awards for The Book of Minerva, and a 2014 City of Hamilton Established Artist award. It also documents ongoing performance activity in 2026 and her inclusion in Toronto's 2025 Shaking the Foundations exhibition. Professional inquiries are routed through the official contact form without republishing a direct email address. The exact bilingual payload was reviewed for identity, current Toronto geography, active status, catalog exclusions, title variation, production credits, achievements, relationships, contact safety, and media treatment. Spotify media is rendered live with provider attribution and a monogram fallback.