A New York Evening With John Oates

The GRAMMY Museum is thrilled to welcome Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and multi-time GRAMMY nominee John Oates to The Greene Space in NYC to talk about his forthcoming album Oates (out August 29), his creative process, legendary career, and more with WNYC’s John Schaefer, followed by a special live performance featuring his brand new band.

John Oates is one of the many artists to be featured in the GRAMMY Museum’s New York City program series, which includes bringing a slate of the GRAMMY Museum’s renowned GRAMMY In The Schools Education Programs and Public Programs to the East Coast. “A New York Evening With…” is generously supported by the Dawn and Brian Hoesterey Family Foundation.

ABOUT JOHN OATES

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 / Chess were Oates’ sonic pallet 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 and 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 and surrounded by kindred spirits and with their help he began to tap back into his earliest musical DNA to establish and re-define himself. The results of which have been seven solo albums, multiple singles, and many classic collaborations. In 2024 this body of work manifested itself in a collection of songs and an album entitled Reunion. The largely acoustic based sound and style are uniquely personal and pays homage to his earliest influences but looks forward with the maturity and perspective of someone who has a recording legacy that dates back over 50 years.

Now Oates has turned up the wick on his latest solo project the more groove oriented and Pop R&B influenced self-titled Oates…a modern collection of new original songs that will remind fans of the classic soul he produced in the 70s and 80s but again always playing homage to the roots of the music that made him who he is today.

The album introduces new collaborations with some of today’s most vibrant and talented new artists like LAWRENCE and DEVON GILLFILLIAN and is yet another milestone in the eclectic and dynamic musical career of John Oates.