John Oates, one-half of the award-winning duo Hall & Oates, is releasing Americana album Mississippi Mile April 12 on Elektra Nashville.
Contributors to the twelve-track set include performers/musicians Bekka Bramlett, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and co-producer Mike Henderson.
The tracks on Mississippi Mile were recorded in one take, with the exception of only two overdubs.
The project chronicles Oates’ musical inspirations from Curtis Mayfield’s “It’s Allright” to Allen Fraser’s “Dance Hall Girls” and even the Hall & Oates classic “You Make My Dreams Come True.”
He also offers two new self-penned originals to the set. “Deep River” is about the Nashville flood, while also paying homage to Doc Watson’s “Deep River Blues.” The album’s title-track is the other Oates original, kicking-off the album with his reverence for classic American music.
“This album is about honoring the tradition of the song itself,” he explains. “I wanted to go back to the songs that really shaped me when I was growing up. I wouldn’t be the musician that I am today without these songs. It’s a stripped-down effort to showcase what the song was before it ever made it on the record and became a hit. The music you hear on Mississippi Mile is as close to a live album as it gets.”
