The long-awaited DVD of the Doobie Brothers’ 2005 appearance at the B.R. Cohn Winery with an astonishing list of guests is finally available. Order it here!

More information:

B.R. Cohn Charity Events Proudly Present a BENEFIT CONCERT for the People of the Gulf Coast, the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Concert was held October 2005 at the B.R. Cohn Winery. The proceeds from the concert and DVD sales are being donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Featuring Performances by:

• The Doobie Brothers
• Loggins & Messina
• Little Feat
• Taj Mahal
• The Turtles
• Lisa Loeb
• Joe Satriani
• Norton Buffalo

While supplies last – Order it here!

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to take a moment to send out our best wishes for a very Happy Holiday Season, to all our Friends and Family. Here’s hoping you and your loved ones are all warm, healthy and happy during this season of giving. It has been a crazy, challenging year for all of us, but it looks like 2009 will be a new year full of hope and promise.

We are so thankful for the gift of soon having Mike Hossack back on the bandstand and on the bus with us. His unanticipated absence during the summer, fall, and now winter months, has been hard for the band, and Mike as well. We will be glad to be past this chapter in our lives, and are looking forward to seeing many of you next year. Mike and the band want to thank all of you for your love and support during his convalescence.

We are almost finished with a new Doobie Brothers album. The first one in almost a decade! Can you believe it? So far we have cut 13 songs, and possibly there are still more to come. We are once again working with our longtime friend and collaborator, Ted Templeman, in the producer’s chair. Ross Hogarth, Phil Kaffel, and Dave Russell have been doing the engineering duties. We are feeling really good about the direction, and performance of the songs. It’s been a lot of work, but so much fun, and as always the creative process is just amazing. To hear ideas that have been floating around in your head for so long finally brought to life in the studio, with the help of your friends, is a feeling that’s hard to describe. Sort of like Christmas and graduation day… hmm… we don’t know… Anyway it’s gonna be great to have some new songs to play next summer. There’s no title yet, we’ll let you know.

Like we said, mainly we want to tell you all how much we appreciate your continued support, and to wish you the best of everything as we move forward into the new year. We hold our families and friends close to our hearts, we try to reach out to those less fortunate, and we give thanks for all the blessings that have come our way. Those are the things we value in our own lives, and we hope you won’t mind if we pass this on. As we move through life, we have come to realize the small moments of happiness we experience in our lives through simple acts of love and sharing, are the best life has to offer. A child’s eyes on Christmas Day, a kiss under the mistletoe, angels in the snow… The memories of this wonderful time of year and those we love. Bless you all and Happy Holidays.

Love,
Pat Simmons

- The Doobie Brothers

Brand new classic rock? Yes, and here’s the story…

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Doobies guitarist John McFee and long time Doobies drummer, the late, great Keith Knudsen formed a band with Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist and fellow Southern Pacific bandmate Stu Cook. Diehard fans have been aware for years that a post-Southern Pacific project existed, although the songs they wrote and recorded have never been released – until now!

Sonic Past Music (the same label that recently released some of John’s work with his pre-Doobies band Clover) is proud to announce the October 21 release of Jackdawg.

This is earthy, creative, truly innovative rock at its finest – the music itself was the only goal here, which is perhaps why it has taken so long for these recordings to become available to the listening public. You can hear the fun in the music, and almost all the material was written by the three members together. The only “outside” songs are Jackdawg’s swampy rendition of Roky Erickson’s haunting Cold Night For Alligators and Van Morrison’s classic Wild Night. Even these two songs are close to home for the lads, as Stu produced Roky’s original version of Alligators and John played on Van’s original hit version of Wild Night. Check it out – the songs and the playing epitomize what a contrast a REAL band, who actually write, play, and sing on their own recordings makes to so much of the plastic, pre-fab offerings of today.

Relevant Trivia

• Jackdawg was a project that naturally evolved out of the dissolution of country rock band Southern Pacific, whose core lineup included John, Keith, and Stu plus keyboardist Kurt Howell (who went on launch a career as a successful solo artist, producer, and songwriter.)
• Jackdawg features John McFee on lead vocals, in addition to guitar.
• John and Keith were both long time touring and recording members of legendary Japanese artist Eikichi Yazawa’s band during the years of the Jackdawg sessions.
• Van Morrison’s version of Wild Night was Doobie Brothers producer (also Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, and more) Ted Templeman’s first hit record as a producer – and John McFee played on the record.
• This release was remixed, restored and remastered by John McFee from the original source tracks.

Listen to clips of all the songs and purchase the album for immediate download now at SonicPastMusic.com!

Alternatively, if you would like this album on an actual, physical CD, go to CDBaby!

As many fans know, The Doobie Brothers‘ manager is Bruce Cohn, whose passion for winemaking has made his B.R. Cohn Winery a huge success with wine experts and enthusiasts worldwide. The Fall Music Festival hosted at the B.R. Cohn Winery has also been a long-standing success, featuring The Doobie Brothers as festival headliners and a musically diverse array of other legendary artists on the bill, all performing to raise money for a variety of charitable causes.

In keeping with this tradition, The B.R. Cohn Charity Events 22nd Annual Fall Music Festival (held this past Saturday and Sunday) was a huge success. We will be posting more details and pictures of the event shortly. Thank you to everyone that came and participated in this great charity event!

The event featured:

• The Doobie Brothers
• Kris Kristofferson
• Todd Rundgren
• The Turtles
• Robert Cray
• Dave Mason
• Lara Johnston
• Michael Finney (Comedian/Magician)

A Benefit for:

• Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance
• Valley of the Moon Boys & Girls Club
• Sonoma Valley Education Foundation
• National Veteran’s Foundation
• CommonBond Foundation

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.

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.”

Read the full article here…

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.