I was a major Hall & Oates fan as a kid, but would now consider the band to be a guilty pleasure. That's probably not fair -- there shouldn't be anything guilty about appreciating good pop songwriting -- but the band did itself no favors with its last couple of releases before taking a long hiatus. "Private Eyes"? Sure. "Maneater"? Not so much.

If anything is clear, however, it is that myself and all of my peers in the mid-1980s made Daryl Hall a very rich man. He gives a little something back in the form of a relatively new web show, "Live From Daryl's House." I came across it thanks to a tip on a Nick Lowe mailing list indicating that Lowe had appeared on Hall's show. I checked it out and found a great live set and a an intriuging new show.

The show is essentially this: Hall and his longtime colleague T-Bone Wolk perform songs with a visiting musician at one of Hall's homes. There are four: Upstate New York, Maine, the Bahamas or London. Lowe visited Hall in London. There, the three musicians performed a handful of songs, including "I Live on a Battlefield," "Shelly My Love," "Cruel to be Kind" and "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day." Played on three acoustic guitars, the songs chime and ring in the castle-like house, while Hall's background harmonies make one pine for future recorded collaborations.

The show debuted in November, and Lowe's is the eighth episode thus far. Previous episodes featured Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, KT Tunstall and, of course, John Oates, among others. Are are viewable at the show's site. They blend acoustic performance with a sort of "Storytellers" vibe that suits the format well.

Perhaps this will offer a bit of career rehabilitation for Hall. Regardless, it's yet another great source of live music on the web.

Labels: music, web