McDonald’s fine voice is a treat for audience
LEWISTON — Honeyvoiced singer-songwriter Michael McDonald brought a set of Motown favorites and R&B originals to an enthusiastic audience Tuesday night at Artpark.
Positioned center stage under a finely coiffed mane of flowing silver hair, the keyboardist and his six-member band treated the crowd to a fine retrospective of his career, which has spanned three decades.
McDonald’s career began with Steely Dan in the early 1970s but took off in earnest when he joined the Doobie Brothers in 1976. He penned some of the Doobs’ best hits, which were on full display and in fine form Tuesday night. He followed up his stint in one of the 1970s best rock groups with a successful solo career in which he collaborated with many artists in the pop and easy-listening genres.
Tuesday’s set was dominated by instantly recognizable Motown covers from McDonald’s March release “Soul Speak,” including “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” “Walk on By,” which was made famous by Dionne Warwick, and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” He wrapped up the set with his biggest hit for the Doobie Brothers, “What a Fool Believes,” which won four Grammys in the late 1970s.
All these songs and others were sung in the original key they were written in, which must be a strain on McDonald’s voice at this stage in his career — though it didn’t show. He must feel a need to stay true to the original compositions.
Early in the set McDonald joked that he and his saxophonist were new inductees into AARP, which was probably true for a majority of the audience that had a fantastic view of the Niagara River gorge and Lewiston-Queenston Bridge on what turned out to be a picturesque evening.
For a generation (that includes this reviewer) too young to remember when “What a Fool Believes” topped the charts, McDonald is the punch-line to a running joke in the 2005 movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” An electronics store employee played by Paul Rudd is driven to the edge of a nervous breakdown by constantly having to view a Michael Mc-Donald music video.
While, yes, McDonald sounds good in your Wegmans aisle and dentist waiting room, his distinctive and familiar voice has an urgency and passion that has earned him staying power among baby boomers.
The night’s encore began with McDonald’s highly stylized solo take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” — always a sublime choice — followed later by Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Clearly Mc-Donald is digging into the influences that shaped his past.
Mike Freedman, Artpark’s director of communications, estimated the crowd between 8,000 and 10,000 people with threatening skies likely keeping many others away. McDonald’s 2005 appearance drew 15,000, Freedman said.
McDonald hung out with the venue’s staff before the show, drinking coffee and taking photos, which earned him the tag “down to earth” from Freedman.
Concert Review
Michael McDonald
Tuesday night as part of Tuesday in the Park series at Artpark.
