The last time Michael McDonald played on an album of new songs by the Doobie Brothers in 1980, record sales still decided a hit, and artists like the California-based group were allowed to grow over several years without too much fear of being dropped by their record company. With their eighth album, 1978’s Minute by Minute, they finally hit No. 1 on the LP chart and were bestowed with an armful of Grammys.
McDonald made one more album with the band, One Step Closer, before leaving for a solo career where he continued to pursue the smoky-voiced, blue-eyed soul he brought to the group in 1976, and which helped make them one of music’s most popular acts by the turn of the decade. He temporarily returned in 2014 for a Doobies tribute/covers album and then again for 2021’s 50th anniversary tour.
With the Doobie Brothers’ 16th LP, Walk This Road, McDonald joins cofounders Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons and guitarist John McFee, an on-and-off member since 1980, for their most satisfying album since their late-’70s heyday. Some of that credit belongs to McDonald’s return, but as soon as he shares vocals on “Learn to Let Go”‘s chorus with Johnston and Simmons, proof that the band has always been greater than just one person comes into clear focus.
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With the bluesy opening track “Walk This Road,” featuring Mavis Staples, coming into view, the Doobies aren’t about to give themselves or the album a 21st-century makeover. Walk This Road is comforting music made for despiriting times; a throwback to both their pre-McDonald period and the six years with the singer that marked their golden era, the record goes for a balance of rock, soul, pop and pristine adult contemporary for every type of Doobie Brothers fan.
It’s easy to pinpoint the entry points from earlier times: breezy mid-’70s shuffle (“Call Me”), funky, full-band workout (“The Kind That Lasts”), riff-driven midtempo guitar rock (“Here to Stay”) and prime-era soulful pop (“Learn to Let Go”). Despite the many personnel changes over the years and their shift from boogie-inclined bar band to blue-eyed-soul pop behemoths, the Doobie Brothers have remained mostly stationary in their intentions. With Walk This Road, they bring it all back home.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci