New Jersey Stage Issue 54 | Page 7

“The music I’m making now - especially this Arkansas album and even on the Mississippi Mile album before that in 2010 - were the direct result of the players that I’ve been surrounded with and been able to meet; what they bring and have brought out of me,” explained Oates. Oates is one half of the legendary duo, Hall & Oates - a name that topped the charts for decades. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, but didn’t release his first solo album until 2002. Making up for lost time, he’s released four solo albums in the last ten years with the three prior to Arkansas all firmly grounded in the rootsy Americana genre - a very different sound from the R&B and soul music that made him a household name. “I was on tour from the early seventies throughout the eighties,” said Oates. “My whole life was so consumed with the Hall & Oates experience that I didn’t have time to do anything else. In the nineties, through Watch a video for “Arkansas” by John Oates NJ STAGE - ISSUE 54 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 7