Growing up on a farm in the municipality of Low, Quebec, Howard Hayes was surrounded by homegrown entertainment. His dad Jimmy played the fiddle and his brother Bill played guitar, so it wasn’t any wonder that he got into the music business at a very young age. He formed his first band in high school, playing for dances in the Gatineau and Pontiac areas.

Howard’s  ride on the Country Music train officially began with his first radio show on CJET in Smiths Falls, a program that ran for three years. At that time he recorded his first vocal album and since that, has recorded five more CDs plus three fiddle and one Irish CD with the group Mountain Tay.

Like so many other Ottawa Valley entertainers, Howard hit the road through the years performing all across Canada entertaining the Canadian Troops and touring with such artists as Wilf Carter, Ronnie Prophet and The Family Brown.

Howard was elected to the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992.