Heartening to see a little recognition for Tommy Yates. I saw him only once, in the 60's at Les Cousins in London's Soho . . . wonderful performance and I bought his "Second City Spiritual" album soon after. Still treasure it . . . one of that decade's best, stacked with fine songs.
Only recently came across Tommy's "Song Of The Shimmering Way", courtesy of the Mysteryposter blog . . . and I've never heard "Love Comes Well Armed". Some day, maybe.
A decade or so ago, I posted a few comments/enquiries about Tommy online and received several replies over a period of time. For years I've subsequently been asked for info on the "Second City Spiritual" tracks. Simply amazing that nobody ever released it on CD.
A guy called Callum (I believe) wrote to tell me of Tommy's latter years in Holland and Belgium and told me of his sad passing. He also mentioned that Tommy's second wife had none of his recordings. Because of computer woes, I lost contact before I could send copies. If anyone's in touch with her, might be a nice gesture to send her some tracks.
Just wanted to add my two penn'orth of recognition for Tommy's great talent.