The Doobie Brothers will release ‘Liberte’, their first new studio album in seven years today.We’re celebrating the new album with an iHeartRadio ICONS special tonight at 7 on BIG 95 KBGO.
Doobies vocalist and guitarist Tom Johnston has said that he and bandmate Pat Simmons wrote five songs with producer John Shanks. They originally intended the project to be a 4-song EP.
The project eventually turned into a full album. Tom said, "That was before COVID hit. And after that year kind of went by and everyday was Thursday and you didn't know what was going on...as soon as we got vaccinated I went back down and started working with John again -- Pat went down and worked with him some more [too] -- we kind of did like two songs at a time for whatever reason. And, before you know it we had 12 songs."
The Doobie Brothers are also celebrating their 50th anniversary tour. Pat took time to look back on the band's early days for the album title.
He said, "We used to play a club in the Santa Cruz Mountains called the Chateau Liberte. A lot of our old time fans that are still living remember that."
‘Liberte’ is the group’s 15th album and their first since 2014's ‘Southbound.’ Michael McDonald is on The Doobie Brothers’ tour, but he is not on the new album.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]