John Oates is embracing his country roots in the the title track of his new album, Arkansas. The video for the song shows scenes from the sprawling state, along with the 69-year-old singing and strumming his guitar.
“I was invited to go to Wilson, Arkansas,” Oates tells Rolling Stone Country, “and was inspired by the landscape where the cotton fields line the Mississippi River shore. My entire musical life has been influenced by the music that has flowed up that river from New Orleans through the Delta, and has had such an important sonic and cultural impact on America. It occurred to me that Arkansas was the last rural stop on the musical journey northward. I wanted both the song and video to reflect that.”
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Oates, once part of the duo Hall & Oates, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, has released four studio albums, including the critically-acclaimed Good Road to Follow. The Pennsylvania native, who now resides largely in Nashville, has been feeling, and embracing, the pull to country music, which has been evident in all of his solo records, but perhaps most clearly in the upcoming Arkansas project.
“The album came to life in the studio by assembling a group of great musicians who listened to each other and then played their asses off,” says Oates. “It is a collection of early American popular songs, and to me [it] sounds like Dixieland, dipped in bluegrass and salted with Delta blues.”
Arkansas will be released on Feb. 2. It is available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes. Oates will hit the road on Jan. 14 in support of the new record. Dates are available on his website.
Photo Credit: Instagram/JohnOatesOfficial
