Daryl Hall will put the spotlight on his 40-plus-year solo career outside of Hall and Oates with the release of a new compilation and a solo tour with special guest Todd Rundgren this spring. The 30-track “BeforeAfter” will arrive via Legacy Recordings on April 1, the same day Hall returns to the live stage at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre.
“I picked the songs I thought were right and significant and meaningful throughout this whole body of work,” Hall tells PvNew of “BeforeAfter,” which spans his 1980 Robert Fripp-produced solo debut “Sacred Songs” up through 2011’s “Laughing Down Crying,” which was co-produced by Hall and Oates’ longtime associate, the late T-Bone Wolk.
Of Fripp, whose adventurous work with King Crimson may have seemed an odd bedfellow alongside Hall’s soulful style, Hall says, “We were friends before we did ’Sacred Songs” and have a lot of common ground — more than people realize. He would just play things and I’d sing lyrics out of the blue and come up with things spontaneously. We had the ability to do that together and do something that I think was pretty unique.”
“BeforeAfter” also includes a host of previously unreleased songs recorded for Hall’s long-running performance series “Live From Daryl’s House,” including lead track “Can We Still Be Friends” with Rundgren, Eurythmics’ “Here Comes the Rain” with that group’s Dave Stewart and a version of “North Star” with singer/guitarist Monte Montgomery. “It just blew me away,” Hall says of the latter. “I see ‘Live From Daryl’s House’ as much a part of my body of work as any of my recorded albums I’ve done.”
On the April tour, which will visit such storied venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, both Rundgren and Hall will be backed by the ‘Live From Daryl’s House’ core band, featuring guitarist Shane Theriot, bassist Klyde Jones, saxophonist Charlie DeChant, keyboardist Elliott Lewis, drummer Brian Dunne and percussionist/vocalist Porter Carroll. Hall expects he and Rundgren will duet on “Can We Still Be Friends” at the shows and says he will sprinkle some Hall and Oates tunes in alongside solo selections from “BeforeAfter.”
“I’ve known Todd since we were kids,” Hall says of fellow Philadelphia native Rundgren. “We have what I consider ultimate respect for each other. I think he’s a phenomenal artist who has carved his own path. Whenever we get together, sparks fly. Something good happens. We sing really well together.”
Although there are no plans at the moment for Hall and Oates to tour in 2022, Hall has already written nine songs with Stewart for a new solo project, which he plans to work on throughout the year. Fripp may also make an appearance at some point, according to Hall. “He wants to do something with me in the studio, so I think this album will be some combination of me getting together with a lot of friends,” he reports.
Daryl Hall and John Oates remain popular fodder for film, TV and commercial syncs, but Hall says he enjoys when lesser-known songs are utilized, such as the recent appearance of the 1976 track “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” in an episode of HBO’s “Euphoria.”
“I’m all about deeper cuts,” he says. “I play ‘Do What You Want’ a lot on stage with Hall and Oates and there’s a good chance I’ll play that on the solo tour too. On ‘Live From Daryl’s House,’ I’d always say to the guest, what do you want to do? And they’ll say, let’s play ‘You Make My Dreams,’ and I’d say, ‘No. no. Go deep. Find a song you just discovered and we’ll play that.’”
As for “Live From Daryl’s House,” which began life as a web show in 2007 and more recently begin airing on AXS-TV, Hall says he is “very much into the idea of bringing it back” after a 2020 pandemic-related hiatus. The show has featured collaborations with everyone from Cheap Trick and Smokey Robinson to Chromeo and Aloe Blacc. “We have some plans and they have not been finalized, but I’m trying to get it back out into the world again.”
Here are Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren’s tour dates:
April 1: Chicago (Auditorium Theatre)
April 3: Nashville (Ryman Auditorium)
April 5: Atlanta (Symphony Hall)
April 7: Northfield, Ohio (MGM Northfield Park)
April 9: Philadelphia (The Met)
April 11: Boston (Orpheum Theatre)
April 14: New York (Carnegie Hall)
April 16: National Harbor, Md. (The Theatre at MGM National Harbor)
The track list for “BeforeAfter”:
Disc One:
“Dreamtime”
“Babs and Babs”
“Foolish Pride”
“Can’t Stop Dreaming”
“Here Comes the Rain Again” (Live From Daryl’s House) with Dave Stewart
“Someone Like You”
“Talking to You (Is Like Talking to Myself)”
“Sacred Songs”
“Right as Rain”
“Survive”
“North Star” (Live From Daryl’s House) with Monte Montgomery
“In My Own Dream” (Live From Daryl’s House)
“NYCNY”
“What’s Gonna Happen to Us”
Disc Two:
“Love Revelation”
“Fools Rush In”
“I’m in a Philly Mood”
“Send Me”
“Justify”
“Borderline”
“Stop Loving Me, Stop Loving You”
“Eyes for You (Ain’t No Doubt about It)”
“The Farther Away I Am”
“Why Was It So Easy”
“Can We Still Be Friends” (Live From Daryl’s House) with Todd Rundgren
“Cab Driver”
“Our Day Will Come” (Live From Daryl’s House)
“Laughing Down Crying” (Live From Daryl’s House)
“Problem with You” (Live From Daryl’s House)
“Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)” (Live From Daryl’s House)
