On the heels of Hall Oates’ first seasonal album, “Home for Christmas,” last year, Darryl Hall says the time is now right to load up the sleigh for a two-week-plus jaunt, which begins Nov. 20 in Chicago. “Last year we didn’t tour the album — instead [we did] a lot of promotion for it,” Hall tells Billboard.com. “This year, we’re not doing much promotion and we are touring. It’s a holiday show.
We’ll do the full album and then at the encore, a bunch of Hall Oates songs.” While “Home for Christmas” received a limited release last year through DKE Records, Hall says this season the 11-track album will be available nationwide. In 2006, the album’s lead single, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Hall says a new single, which has yet to be determined, will be released this holiday season.
“I think you can go two ways with Christmas music Hall says. “You can either go sort of the novelty way, the ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ kind of crap, or you can go more into the true sense of Christmas way, which is a more spiritual thing. To me, this is the real essence of Christmas.
That’s the path I chose for this piece, and I can do Christmas shows behind this for the rest of my life.” While future Hall Oates material is expected, the 61-year-old Hall says he’s feeling singer/songwriter-y at the moment, with numerous introspective tunes in the works.