Although many people around the world know him as the co-creator of the pop group Hall & Oates, this versatile artist’s musical roots run deep.
As a young child in the early 1950s, John’s life and influences parallel the evolution of American rock and roll. Playing and singing from the age of five, he was born into a life of music.
“I am old enough to remember music before the birth of rock and roll, so when it hit, I was aware that something new and groundbreaking had happened.”
Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, and Elvis laid the foundation, and the regional sounds crackling out of the AM radio from labels like Stax, Volt, Specialty, Sun, and Chess were Oates’ sonic palette from which to draw inspiration.
In the early 1960s, when the folk revival swept the college campuses, John immersed himself in songs he heard from all the newly rediscovered artists — many of whom traced their careers back to the 1920s and ’30s, at the beginning of phonograph recordings.
Living in Philadelphia at that time, John haunted the coffee houses and festivals to hear folks like Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and spent many a Saturday night at the fabled Uptown Theater to experience R&B greats like Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, the Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, and James Brown.
It was from these early influences that John Oates became the musician he is today — a keeper of the flame, an Americana amalgamation of all that he heard and all that has come before him.
Working and moving to Nashville in the early 2000s, John was embraced by the burgeoning Americana music community. Surrounded by kindred spirits, and with their help, he began to tap back into his earliest musical DNA to establish and redefine himself.
The results of which have been seven solo albums, multiple singles, and many classic collaborations.
In 2024, this body of work has manifested itself in a collection of songs and an album called Reunion.