Doobie Brothers - The Very Best Of The Doobie Brothers

It's a double dose of the Doobies and the usual Rhino treatment everyone gets eventually. Since The Doobies, or at least some of them, moved to Lake and Sonoma Counties from their native San Jose, those counties have never been the same. They ride their hogs around Clear Lake or hang out at their manager, Bruce Cohn's winery. John McFee has been their secret weapon ever since Jeff "Skunk" Baxter became a "missile consultant" for the Bush administration. McFee is a multi-instrumentalist and a quadruple threat to every purveyor of the three chord technique. A great interview, he is also a former member of Clover with Huey Lewis (Clover was Elvis Costello's band on his first Columbia LP). Not a bad pedigree. He also makes the Doobies sing in the absence of their "missile consulting" former compatriot. Nevertheless, "Skunk" remains a true guitar hero. Saw him two nights in a row with the very early Steely Dan. Yes, Fagen left his now welded shades on. Another Dan alumnus, Michael McDonald, is all over this compilation. You either like him, or, you don't. Side one has most of the hits--"Takin' It To The Streets," "Listen To The Music," "Black Water," "China Grove." You know them and likely still love them. Their Sesame Street turn on Edward Lear's "Winken, Blinken & Nod" is a good find. Even Oscar The Grouch could groove to that one. The Doobies showed lots of class a couple of years ago when they played a benefit concert for one of their drummers, Michael Hossack, who was in a wheelchair at the time. Their other drummer, Keith Knudsen, Madison, Wisconsin's gift to Lee Michaels, is positively the skinniest dude still alive in rock 'n' roll. Heck, I like them. Even if they did lift those cowboy clothes from the Charlatans. Who didn't? Sleep well tonight America. "Skunk" Baxter is consulting your missiles. [www.rhino.com]