NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Universal Motown Records) - Classic songs will be brought to a classic New York stage, as Universal Motown superstar singer-songwriter MICHAEL McDONALD debuts his new album Soul Speak at the Blue Note jazz club, on March 4 and 5, 2008, coinciding with the album's retail release.
One of the most soulfully expressive and universally influential singers and songwriters of our generation, five-time Grammy winner McDonald calls Soul Speak 'a labor of love.' The album combines heartfelt new interpretations of monumental songs by Stevie Wonder ('Living For The City'), Van Morrison ('Into The Mystic'), Bob Marley ('Redemption Song') and Leonard Cohen ('Hallelujah') with three new original songs: 'Only God Can Help Me Now,' 'Enemy Within,' and 'Can't Get Over You (Getting Over Me).'
In the weeks leading up to the release of Soul Speak, three different radio formats have rushed toward the album's many irresistible pleasures: at mainstream AC radio, McDonald's revival of Jackie Wilson's '(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher' is already in the top 15 in national airplay. At Urban AC, his version of Teddy Pendergrass' early - '80s Philly-soul smash 'Love T.K.O.' is in the top 25 nationally; and in the Smooth Jazz format, McDonald's loving tribute to Dionne Warwick and Bacharach/David, 'Walk On By,' is in the top 25 - all three tracks, in fact, are charted and bulleting on the Smooth Jazz airplay chart.
Soul Speak was produced by frequent Eric Clapton collaborator and hit songwriter Simon Climie ('I Knew You Were Waiting [For Me],' 'Invincible'). Michael McDonald's previous Universal Motown albums, Motown (2003), and Motown 2, released in 2004, were both Top 15 Billboard albums, and are RIAA-certified at platinum and gold level, respectively, with combined sales in excess of two million copies. McDonald has a solo career total of seven RIAA sales awards.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1952, Michael McDonald was first noticed by the mass rock audience as a background singer and keyboard player on the classic albums of Steely Dan; he joined The Doobie Brothers in 1975 and added both the warm and gritty sides of blue-eyed soul to the group's sound, writing such hits as 'Takin' It To The Streets' and 'Real Love,' while scoring massive songwriting and recording successes with such collaborators as Kenny Loggins (the Doobie Brothers' 1979 Grammy Record of the Year 'What a Fool Believes,' 'This Is It'), Carly Simon ('You Belong to Me') and Christopher Cross ('Ride Like the Wind'), among others.
His highly-successful solo career includes such highlights as 'Sweet Freedom,' 'I Keep Forgettin,' the No. 1 'On My Own' with Patti LaBelle, and the Grammy Award-winning 'Yah Mo B There' with James Ingram.
