Arkansas (CD)
John Oates
Amoeba Review
09/07/2020
John Oates is in a rustic mood. Sans pop chart partner Darryl Hall, Oates has deigned to leave the blue-eyed soul behind and pay homage to a more traditional kind on his newest record. Arkansas features renditions of those well-worn American traditionals whose origins border the Mississippi, along with a few spirited originals created in their image. That imagery is appropriately panoramical and rural: full of rivers, barns, amber waves of grain, etc. Think of your 5th grade social studies textbook come to life. Unlike that textbook, however, the album also plays the hell out of itself, using a group of seasoned session player badasses dubbed the Good Road Band to concoct an album of what the artist describes as “Dixieland, dipped in bluegrass, and salted with Delta blues.” A recipe for success, no doubt.