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“We’re all bands from sort of the same era,” Simmons said. “We have a certain way that enables us all to connect with the audience, who is really there to relive past moments. It’s not a cheap ticket but people definitely got their money’s worth.”
The Doobie Brothers formed in California in 1969. Like many of its Bay Area contemporaries at the time, the group drew from rock, blues, R&B and other styles and topped the tasty results with rich vocal harmonies.
The Doobie Brothers remain in high demand in 2017. The group was in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the spring, and returns to the United Kingdom in the fall. In June and July, it was a co-headlining tour with Chicago.
“With a band like ours, we tour a lot and always have,” Simmons said. “We enjoy that live interaction. We enjoy playing. We’re now the guys we used to admire like BB King, Albert King, the Eagles or whatever. We’re the guys out there playing real music and loving it.
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“We’re at about 85 shows a year now but we used to play a lot more,” he said. “We were doing over 100 shows a year but we decided to cut back and it’s been really luxurious.”
The band's latest album, "Southbound" (2014), was a collection of classic Doobie songs redone with different country artists. The plan is to follow that with a series of smaller releases rather than another full-length.
“We’re working on general recording and having fun doing it,” Simmons said. “We’re talking about maybe releasing a couple of songs from whatever we end up with rather than a whole album. People aren’t necessarily even buying albums anymore so we might just start releasing songs here and there. We’ll make more available depending on how people want to approach it.”
WANT TO GO?
Who: The Doobie Brothers with special guests JD & the Straight Shot
Where: Rose Music Center, 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23
Cost: $50-$72
More info: 937-228-2323 or www.ticketmaster.com
Artist info: https://thedoobiebrothers.com
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