Les Hatley began his music career in the 1960’s as lead guitarist with a DC area R&B group called The Showmen. Since then he has played in a number of groups and has enjoyed opening shows for 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 churches to the Historic Old Town Theatre (Alexandria, VA), the BlackRock Center for the Arts (Germantown, MD) the Lincoln Theatre (Washington DC), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the White House. Les was inducted into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame in September 2015. He is also a Washington Area Music Association “Wammie” award winner for Folk–Contemporary Instrumentalist. His memoir, based on his scrapbook covering over 50 years of music adventures and musician pals, is being readied for publication as a book to be titled An American Music Journey. In June 2016 Les signed on with Soul Stew Records, with a first release targeted for late spring 2017. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Songwriters' Association of Washington (SAW) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Writer's Center (Bethesda, MD) 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.”