After withdrawing from the music business and struggling with drug addiction, Tate mounted a warmly received comeback in 2001.

According to an interview Tate gave to No Depression magazine writer Edd Hurt in 2006, he was born in Elberton, Georgia.

Utilizing New York City session musicians, including Paul Griffin, Richard Tee, Eric Gale, Chuck Rainey, and Herbie Lovelle, Tate and Ragovoy produced a series of soul blues recordings from 1966 to 1968.

He brought out the best in soul pro Jerry Ragovoy, who made Tate's records jump instead of arranging them into submission, and gave him lyrics with some wit to them besides.

In the 1980s, after his 13-year-old daughter died in a house fire,[5] he developed a drug habit and ended up living in a homeless shelter.

Working with the producer, arranger and songwriter Steve Weisberg, Tate recorded A Portrait of Howard, released in 2006 on the independent Solid Ground label.

It included compositions by Randy Newman, Nick Lowe, Lou Reed and Carla Bley, along with songs written by Tate and Weisberg.

[6] He and his touring quartet performed songs from his catalogue at Blue Heaven Studios, for an album released in 2010 as a limited-edition vinyl-only, direct-to-disc live recording.