Ravinia 2019, Issue 3, Week 5

7:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019 PAVILION ISAIAH SHARKEY † –Intermission– CHAKA KHAN –Intermission– MICHAEL MCDONALD † Ravinia debut MICHAEL MCDONALD Michael McDonald began his career singing backup vocals and playing keyboards for Steely Dan, remaining with the group until it went on hiatus in 1980. He was recruited into the Doobie Brothers in 1975 when lead singer Tom John- ston became ill during a tour. McDonald stayed on as a full-time member of the band, shifting the group’s sound away from rock toward its acclaimed blue-eyed soul and jazz. During his years with the Doobie Brothers, he recorded a number of his best-known songs, such as “Real Love,” “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “Little Darling,” “It Keeps You Runnin’,” “Minute by Minute,” and “What a Fool Believes,” which became a num- ber-one single in the United States and earned McDonald and cowriter Kenny Loggins a Gram- my Award for Song of the Year. Following the Doobie Brothers’ farewell tour in 1982, McDon- ald released his first solo album, If That’s What It Takes , featuring crossover hit single “I Keep For- gettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”—charting at number four on the Hot 100 and number seven on the R&B charts—and “I Gotta Try,” cowritten with Kenny Loggins. He also recorded a series of successful collaborations in the late ’80s, no- tably Grammy-winning “Yah Mo B There” with James Ingram, and “On My Own” with Patti LaBelle, which reached number one on the US charts in 1986. McDonald performed the single “Sweet Freedom” on the soundtrack to the 1987 movie Running Scared , a song that saw success on numerous charts he hadn’t previously bro- ken into. He recorded “Ever Changing Times” with Aretha Franklin in 1991, and that same year joined The New York Rock and Soul Revue, a four-year project spearheaded by Donald Fagen. His platinum-selling and Grammy-nominated album Motown (2003) began a series of tributes to the hits and lesser-known works of the genre. In 2017 he released Wide Open , his first album since the 2013 EP Unfinished Business with gui- tarist Robben Ford. Michael McDonald first ap- peared at Ravinia in 2012 with the Dukes of Sep- tember Rhythm Revue and subsequently made solo appearances in 2014 and 2017. JULY 1 – JULY 7, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 93