Michael McDonald is having a millennial moment.<\/p>\n
The 67-year old former Doobie Brother and Steely Dan member with the silky smooth voice may be a white-haired elder statesman of soft rock, but \u2014 quite suddenly and much to his surprise \u2014 McDonald also is being hailed as a hero by a new generation of musicians and fans.<\/p>\n
His guest appearance with jazz-funk bassist Thundercat at Coachella in 2017<\/a> just about exploded the Internet and became one of the biggest moments in pop music this year. McDonald plays their new song \u201cShow You the Way\u201d \u2014 co-written and recorded with McDonald, Thundercat and Kenny Loggins \u2014 along with the Doobie Brothers classic \u201cWhat a Fool Believes.\u201d He also showed up to much fanfare to do \u201cWhat a Fool Believes\u201d with Solange at Florida\u2019s Okeechobee festival<\/a> in in Florida. Mac DeMarco and Frank Ocean openly paid tribute to McDonald on their acclaimed new albums.<\/p>\n The rock icon has never gone away, but he hasn\u2019t always been cool \u2014 his dramatically earnest and tender voice has been spoofed everywhere from \u201cSouth Park\u201d to \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d mocked in \u201cThe 40-Year-Old Virgin\u201d and the web series \u201cYacht Rock.\u201d But all of a sudden, a new generation of 20- and 30-something listeners seems to have realized that Michael McDonald is awesome.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one is more surprised than me at the chain of events,\u201d McDonald, who headlines Belly Up Aspen on Tuesday, said before headlining Jazz Aspen\u2019s June Experience in 2017. \u201cIt\u2019s been a real shot in the arm for me from a musical standpoint, working with Thundercat, Steve Bruner and getting to meet Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n In a music career spanning nearly 50 years since his early days gigging around St. Louis, McDonald has seen his share of peaks and valleys. This millennial boom came along with the release of a new album called \u201cWide Open,\u201d his first solo album of originals in 17 years.<\/p>\n For the first time in a while, McDonald said, he feels in tune with pop music.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the decades go by, there are times when you feel like everybody is speaking in a language you don\u2019t understand,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cBut then there\u2019s always that moment where someone is standing in front of you and doing something you totally relate to and you feel like it has all the nuance and tradition of the music you have grown up with and loved since you can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n A lifetime in music, of course, with moments on top of the world and others near the bottom, has also taught him to enjoy a zeitgeist-y run like this one.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re happy it\u2019s happening for as long as it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThe music business is one of those things that comes in waves. There\u2019s always that ominous silence for a while that you have to adjust to again, and wherever the muse takes you, it\u2019s anybody\u2019s guess.\u201d<\/p>\n For his Aspen shows, McDonald comes armed with all of his solo hits, his Doobie Brothers songs and his popular Motown covers along with the \u201cWide Open\u201d material. \u201cWide Open\u201d is an eclectic mix of R&B, country and gospel.<\/p>\n Among the new songs is the standout \u201cFree a Man.\u201d It\u2019s a funky political anthem and a call for equal rights that makes room for some grooving saxophone solos. It was written by Richard Stekol (\u201cOne of the best songwriters in America, for my money\u201d). McDonald was working on it long before Donald Trump entered the presidential race and the fight for gay and women\u2019s rights in America intensified. With a chorus of \u201cFree a man and love will follow,\u201d the song was an anthem waiting for a movement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to be a conversation we\u2019re having as a nation at this moment, and yet it\u2019s also a conversation we\u2019ve always been having,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThey seem to be the stumbling blocks to actually becoming the country that we say we are \u2014 actually living up to the Constitution and the inclusion we say we\u2019re about.\u201d<\/p>\n Making the new record was less about some great artistic epiphany and more about the simple fact that McDonald built a studio in Nashville. Whenever he has an idea, or wants to cut a demo, he heads in there. The demos have steadily piled up until the young producer Shannon Forrest persuaded McDonald to release them (the record also includes guest spots form Warren Haynes, Robben Ford, Marcus Miller and Branford Marsalis).<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these songs were just from me sneaking into the studio randomly over the years,\u201d McDonald explained. \u201cI was writing them and we\u2019d think of artists to send them to \u2013 kind of living the life of Nashville songwriters. Thinking someone like Bonnie Raitt would cut our songs, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Forrest fell in love with the songs as McDonald played them and told him, \u201cI think you\u2019ve got a record here.\u201d<\/p>\n All this is to say that Michael McDonald is no oldies act.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 65 years old, but I\u2019m enjoying life more than I ever have,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not enjoying yourself at this point, you\u2019re missing the point.\u201datravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n