This is a copy of an article in a north Jersey paper this past Friday. . . There's at least one thing you can say about crooner Michael McDonald: He's certainly not a Type A personality. The proof is in his just-released "Blue Obsession" CD, his first new collection of songs in seven years. It's mostly procrastination, admits the 47-year-old singer, who hits the Taj Mahal's Xanadu showroom tonight. "I guess I'm just one of those people who is not all that prolific," he says. "It's hard for me to come up with something I think is worth putting on an album. To come up with something [worthwhile] always winds up taking me longer than I would like it to." "Blue Obsession" finds McDonald doing what he loves best: singing in classic R&B and soul modes. Most of the disc's tunes are originals he wrote with a variety of collaborators. There are also two covers, Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" and the set's most interesting piece, a soulful interpretation of Neil Young's "Down by the River." Curiously, the album was recorded in Nashville, Tenn., where the St. Louis native has made his home the past five years. He says he doesn't find it odd at all that such a hard-core R&B CD was recorded in the country music capital. "Nashville to me is as much an R&B town as anywhere else," he says. "It's a pretty eclectic community." McDonald adds that many of the veteran soul players, who once worked out of places like Memphis, Tenn., and Muscle Shoals, Ala., have relocated to Nashville. "I always found the people I talked to were people cutting pop records. I really don't see [country musicians] all that much," he says. "Blue Obsession" is on the Ramp label, which McDonald co-owns with actor Jeff Bridges (who also just released an album of original compositions) and producer Chris Pelonis, who brought McDonald and Bridges together during a surfing outing in California. "Label ownership," McDonald says, "was a pool I had to jump into. There aren't that many major-label deals left out there for a guy like me. We've all had the fantasy of starting a label, so why not just go out and do it?" McDonald's breakthrough occurred in the latter part of 1970s, when, as a member of the Doobie Brothers, he more or less transformed the group from a straight rock-and-roll outfit into a slick R&B-pop combo that hit the top of the charts with 1979's "What a Fool Believes," which McDonald wrote with Kenny Loggins. He has not reunited with the Doobies for an extended tour, but he has, on occasion, joined the band for gigs, generally charity events. But fans of the McDonald-era Doobies should be heartened by the news that plans for a reunion tour are in the works. "We've talked about going out together later this summer," he says, "but I just don't know if it's going to happen this year. Next summer is more like it." Show time is 10 tonight. $35 and $25. For information and reservations, call (609) 449-5150. * * * _________________________ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe doobiefans-list" in the body.
