Catch up with McDonald, white-haired icon of blue-eyed soul

When Michael McDonald was a teenager he played as a member of one of the countless pick-up bands that famously backed the late Chuck Berry on the road.

“I remember seeing him show up that night — it was like something out of a rock ‘n’ roll movie,” said the veteran singer and keyboardist, recalling a gig with Berry in the mid-1960s at the basement Castaway club in McDonald’s hometown of Ferguson, Mo. “He comes down the stairs with a guitar in his hand — no case, no cord — and stands there while the club owner peels off hundred-dollar bills. Then he turned and walked right onstage. And he just rocked the house.”

A half-century later, McDonald was the one dropping in to blow minds when he turned up at this month’s Coachella festival for a surprise appearance with the jazz-funk bassist Thundercat.

McDonald sat in with Thundercat’s trio for a vivid rendition of the latter’s “Show You the Way,” then stuck around to do “What a Fool Believes,” his late-’70s soft-rock hit with the Doobie Brothers.

Both triggered wild cheers from the festival’s young audience.

With his white hair and wire-rimmed glasses, McDonald, 65, may have been an unlikely presence at Coachella, which also featured cameos by Drake and the hiphop trio Migos.

In fact, jamming with Thundercat was merely the latest in a series of intergenerational hookups for this icon of blue-eyed soul, who recently did “What a Fool Believes” with Solange at a festival in Florida; before that, he joined Thundercat during a 2016 concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

Other hip acts, from Grizzly Bear to Mac DeMarco, have been talking up McDonald’s music lately, drawing inspiration from classic songs like “I Keep Forgettin’” and “Minute by Minute” the same way McDonald once did from Chuck Berry.

Now he’s taking advantage of this resurgence to release an album, his first set of original tunes in nearly two decades. Due in September, “Wide Open” sets McDonald’s gruff but heartfelt vocals — and his thoughts on romance and human nature — against arrangements that pull expertly from R&B, country and gospel.

“Does the sound of my voice still carry any kind of message?” he asks an old lover in “Hail Mary,” and this excellent record argues that it does.

So does Thundercat. “His singing is so specific, and it has so much depth,” said the 32-year-old bassist, who invited McDonald and Kenny Loggins to co-write and record the silky “Show You the Way” for his 2017 album, “Drunk.”

Yet it wasn’t just McDonald’s voice that attracted Thundercat. “Michael is such a stark example of staying honest and open in your music,” he said. “Sometimes these older cats get jaded — they start thinking kids are stupid. But the Michael I’m seeing is the same guy I would’ve seen 30 or 40 years ago if I’d been around.”

The songs on “Wide Open” are strong; they showcase McDonald’s indelible singing as well as his deep musical know-how.

Still, McDonald admitted that all those years off from original material left him with doubts about his ability to re-enter the game. “I kind of felt like I’d become the guy in the left lane going 40 miles an hour with his blinker stuck on,” he said.

The groundswell of admiration helped bolster his confidence. But even a well-executed appearance at Coachella can go only so far in building interest in his new work.

“It’s all about the channels something travels through,” DeMarco said, acknowledging the challenge in selling a veteran’s record to 20-somethings who no longer buy records.

McDonald understands that challenge, which is why he hasn’t stopped playing casinos and county fairs. “I’ve been around long enough to know that I can’t necessarily count on any of this stuff.”

McDonald and Boz Scaggs will be performing at the Fraze Pavilion on July 12.