Doobie Brothers drummer Michael Hossack has been injured in a taxi cab accident while on tour with the band. He is currently in stable condition in the hospital, and will be missing some shows.
The Doobie Brothers are continuing their current tour with Doobie drummer Ed Toth keeping the beat for the band. All of our best wishes go out to Mike for a speedy recovery.
If you happen to be at a Doobies concert this summer and arrive early, you might be lucky enough to catch a familiar artist by the name of Pat Simmons opening the show. No, we don’t mean that Pat Simmons, but you’re close.
It’s actually Pat Simmons Jr. - he is singing a few tunes and accompanying himself on the guitar and harmonica. Just goes to show the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Or the grape from the vine? Here’s a picture from the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif. near San Jose where it all began.
How cool is this? Every musician has influences and people they admire for their abilities and musical accomplishments. For a multi-instrumentalist player-singer such as the Doobies’ own John McFee, it’s hard to imagine a greater role model and musical inspiration than the legendary Glen Campbell.
Well, when the opportunity presented itself for John to work with Glen for a video recording session featuring songs from Glen’s new (August 19 release date) album, Meet Glen Campbell, John naturally jumped at the chance to play with one of his idols.
Without revealing too much about the session, suffice it to say that according to John “it was an unbelievable honor” to get to perform with Glen - both the newer music and some of Glen’s classics (including at least one of Glen’s songs that ranks at the top of the list of John’s all time favorite records).
An air date hasn’t been set yet for the video - check out Glen’s official web site for updates and more information about his new album, which includes some great material from what might be surprising sources (such as songs by Green Day, U2, and Tom Petty, among others).
It must have been meant to be - two Doobie Brothers playing on the opening track of Emmylou Harris’ beautiful new release, “All I Intended To Be”.
Meant to be because the tracks for the song, Jack Wesley Routh’s “Shores Of White Sand”, were recorded a number of years ago, and are only now becoming available to the public as part of Emmy’s special new album. The Doobie members playing on the tracks are the late Keith Knudsen on drums, which makes this a very precious recording indeed or those of us who loved Keith and his playing, and Doobie guitarist John McFee doing all the guitar work on the song.
As always, Emmylou delivers a wonderful album. Produced by Brian Ahern, one of the all time great record producers (besides Emmy’s first 11 solo albums he has produced records by Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Ricky Scaggs, and many others), this is music worth listening to. For more information, visit Emmylou’s official web site.
Check out this cool article/interview in the York Daily Record. Pat Simmons discusses the new album in progress and the current Summer tour with Chicago, among other things. Check out the excerpts from Pat’s interview below or read the full article here.
About the album:
“We’ve done a couple of sessions with Ted [Templeman, longtime Doobie Brothers producer - ed.], just really getting used to each other again … We hadn’t done anything with Ted for such a long time. I think that’s kind of the way it’s going to be with Bob, too, just kind of go in and get our feet wet a little bit with each other, get to know each other and stuff. But we’re looking forward to it.”
About the tour:
“We always pretty much do a lot of the songs that people have come to hear, the hits and stuff… That’s always part of the bargain. When you’re out there, people want to hear the songs that they grew up with and that they’re familiar with. Then we kind of sprinkle it with songs that we like to do, basically stuff that we’ve done through the years that maybe they weren’t hits, but they’re kind of things that we’ve enjoyed playing. We’re always kind of digging something out of the archives that we’ve never done before or haven’t done before or we haven’t done for years and years.”
Las Vegas, NV - A happy ending to a previous story - Michael Hossack’s now infamous impostor has at last, been brought to justice. If you have been victimized by this man, please call the detective’s phone number listed in the following official arrest information:
Michael Rogers ID# 0924133 was arrested Sunday night, 06-01-08 at a local hotel. Rogers was involved in a scam where he was impersonating being a drummer for a band and offered extra services and access for a fee. Rogers was wanted in several cases where he impersonated the drummer of the Doobie Brothers.
If you have any additional cases at your hotel involving Rogers and this scam, call LVMPD Detective Jon Zeh at 702-400-1107.
While MTV’s Rock The Cradle may have come to an end with Kenny Loggins‘ son, Crosby Loggins, as the official winner, there are no losers when it comes to televised publicity, and Doobie Brother Tom Johnston’s daughter Lara Johnston proved to be more than just a worthy competitor. Lara won new fans worldwide thanks to her hard work and stellar performances.
Keep up on the latest Lara Johnston news, videos, and more at http://www.myspace.com/larajohnston.
Two of the authors of the title track from the Doobies’ One Step Closer album have reunited musically, and the result is a highly acclaimed new album. Carlene Carter, country music “royalty” (daughter of June Carter and Country Music Hall Of Fame artist Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash) and Grammy nominated artist in her own right has just released the album Stronger, her first album in thirteen years - and it was produced by the Doobie Brothers’ own John McFee. Also appearing on the album is Doobies keyboardist Guy Allison, while John produced, engineered, and played most of the instruments on the record himself.
The songs on the album were largely written in the aftermath of a series of emotionally challenging events in Carlene’s life, which may be one of the reasons for the depth of response the product is generating from both general public and critics alike. Within an eight month period a few years back, Carlene lost her mother June, her long time companion Howie Epstein (bass player of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), her stepfather Johnny Cash, and her sister Rosie.
A good example of the reaction the record is getting would be these comments from two songwriters whose work surely ranks among the best writing of the past half century:
A sampling of critics’ comments:
You can give the entire album a listen for free by clicking here for Carlene’s record company’s (Yep Roc Records) web site where they have a streaming audio player of the album - check it out. You can purchase the album at Amazon
Breaking News: Doobie Brothers announce co-headlining tour with Chicago
Two of America’s longest running and most respected classic rock bands join forces for 2008 summer tour. Please note that The Official Doobie Brothers Website is the first to announce these dates, and that tickets may not be on sale at this time.
View the Doobie Brothers / Chicago Summer 2008 Tour Dates here…
30 years later, his aim is still true - that’s right, we’re talking about the very talented and generous of spirit Mr. Elvis Costello. It’s hard for some of us to believe, but it was 30 years ago that Elvis made his debut album, My Aim Is True, and was propelled into superstar status in the music scene by this classic recording. One of the better kept secrets of rock and roll is that among the musicians backing Elvis up on this album, designated “Album of the Year” by Rolling Stone magazine, was none other than the Doobie Brothers’ own John McFee.
Yes, that’s John’s lead guitar and pedal steel work on such classics as Alison, The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes, Miracle Man, Waiting For The End Of The World, and the entire original album. For the first time ever, the musicians who played on the My Aim Is True sessions performed the entire album publicly with Elvis - and then the music continued with a number of solo acoustic numbers by Mr. Costello, and the band came back to join Elvis for what would normally pass for another show’s worth of material (including out-takes from the My Aim Is True sessions and two of Elvis’ favorite Clover songs). Former Marin County group Clover members Sean Hopper (keyboardist from Huey Lewis and the News), John Ciambotti (bass player on Grammy award winning albums by John Prine and Lucinda Williams), and John McFee were joined by drummer Pete Thomas (of Elvis’ Attractions and Imposters fame). This alone would be enough to make it a special occasion, but the fact that the shows were benefit performances for a very worthy cause made it even more memorable.
The sold out shows took place at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, and the proceeds are going towards the Richard de Lone Special Housing Project, an organization founded by Elvis’ long time friend and sometimes keyboard player, Austin de Lone. The organization is named for Austin’s son Richard, and is a resource for those who, like young Richard, suffer from Prader-Willi syndrome. For more information please visit their web site. Austin, along with “Dieselbilly” guitarist Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen) performed an opening set for the evening, and also joined Elvis and Clover for several numbers - including the evening’s finale song, My Aim Is True producer Nick Lowe’s What’s So Funny ’bout Peace, Love and Understanding.
The event was a great success, and was recorded as well, so those of you who were unable to attend may be able to listen to the music soon. This is what San Francisco’s premier music critic Joel Selvin had to say about it all after attending the show: “Every so often, once every 10 or 15 years maybe, there’s a nightclub show as special as the Elvis Costello performance Thursday at the Great American Music Hall. Maybe not even that often.” Enough said…
