Les Hatley is a long time Washington DC area guitar player, has been inducted into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame and has been recognized by the Washington Area Music Association with a Wammie Award for Folk-Contemporary Instrumentalist. He received the prestigious Directors Award for Instrumental Music for the Album “Chocolate” from the Songwriters Association of Washington’s Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.
Les recorded with a number of artists over the years, and released his first solo CD, called Second Chair, in 2009. In November 2012 he released his second solo CD, called Surge. Both CDs feature instrumental stories. His music has been played on over 600 radio stations internationally. Surge stayed on the Americana National Top 500 Chart for almost all of 2013. In the summer of 2014 Les came in at 125 on the Netherlands Top 200 Artists Chart, based on radio airplay, and in the fall of 2014 came in at 112.
His third solo CD, called “Chocolate” was released in September 2017 on the Soul Stews Records label. “Chocolate” has had considerable radio airplay in the USA and internationally.
Les has had some of his music included on television soundtracks, including Discovery, Animal Planet, MTV and TLC episodes.
One listener wrote that Les Hatley has the fingers of a big, muscular, friendly angel. Belgium’s Rootstime Magazine reviewed Surge and wrote that especially enjoyable were the atmospheric instrumental tracks and that the CD provides the listener moments of reflection and quiet enjoyment.
Les began his music career in the 1960’s as lead guitarist with an R&B group called The Showmen. Since then he has played in a number of bands and has enjoyed sharing the stage with notables such as Roberta Flack, Lou Christie, the Coasters, Steppenwolf and others. The Showmen had the honor of playing as the back-up band for The Fantastic Johnny C in local support of his national hit record Boogaloo Down Broadway. Les has played venues ranging from suspicious bars to the Historic Old Town Theatre (Alexandria, VA), the Lincoln Theatre (Washington DC), the Kennedy Center and the White House.
His 1,600 page scrapbook of music adventures … from day one to the present …is being readied for publication as a coffee table book and in digital form.
Les is a former long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Songwriters’ Association of Washington www.saw.org. and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Writer’s Center www.writer.org (in Bethesda, MD).
