Walk the path together for as long as you can, but when you must part, never hold your companion back.—Taoist saying
There doesn’t seem to be much holding singer-songwriter John Oates back lately. At 76, he is still blessed with a strong voice and a desire to step away from the glare of his previous fame and connect with audiences on a more intimate basis.
For more than 50 years, Oates was half of the most popular duo in rock music history. Hall & Oates recorded 21 albums and scored 10 number one records with more than 20 Top 40 hits, resulting in sales of more than 80 million units and induction in both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the American Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Their run, especially during the 1980s, created a musical landscape that produced such pop hits as “Private Eyes,” “Maneater,” “I Can’t Go for That,” and “Kiss on My List”— catchy tunes that critics often labeled as “blue-eyed soul.”
Oates acknowledges that the duo is done professionally, but he won’t assign blame, nor does he allow himself to be bitter.”
But Oates is bringing something different, more reflective, to the Clark Center on Tuesday, March 11, serving up a self-described acoustic “evening of song and story” with a quartet of talented Nashville musicians.
“We’re going to be playing a kind of retrospective of the music I grew up listening to,” Oates shared in a recent interview. “Plus, a couple Hall & Oates hits and some of my solo work.”
Oates’ concert set lists from last year promise a rich tapestry of music for his upcoming show—a nod to Jimmie Rodgers with a cover of “Miss the Mississippi and You,” a pair of tunes from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and even some Louis Armstrong to close out the evening.
“It’s an intimate evening where I tell a lot of stories, the back stories of how some of the songs were written, but it’s really a chance for me to connect with an audience on a highly personal way,” Oates says.
His most recent recording project, “Mending,” is a return to his R&B soul roots, working with young artists like Devon Gilfillian. The project title, Oates explains, comes from a Tarot card his wife randomly selected for possible inspiration.
“My wife’s really into Tarot cards. We needed a title. She pulled out the ‘Mending’ card. We had a title.”
“Mending” seems especially apt for someone who recently went through a very public breakup with his former longtime partner Daryl Hall. Much has been in the press about the split, including Hall suggesting that Hall & Oates can now be found “at the bottom of the ocean.”
Oates acknowledges that the duo is done professionally, but he won’t assign blame, nor does he allow himself to be bitter.
“We grew apart as people,” Oates says about Hall. “We started out as kids and we were together for more than 50 years. That’s a long time, a long time to do anything with anybody. We grew out of the collaboration that we had.”