The Doobie Brothers have just released one of this year’s coolest country albums — titled Southbound — which brings the Doobies together again with Michael McDonald and a bunch of country stars to record all-new versions of the band’s classic hits: songs like “Black Water,” “Listen to the Music,” and “China Grove.” And while an album of country collaborations is an exciting idea, the Doobies admit that it wasn’t until they got started on the album that they realized just how cool this was all going to be. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Doobie Brothers Tom Johnston and John McFee recall the first day of recording Southbound — and once they heard Chris Young, they knew this album was off to an amazing start. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Doobie Patrick Simmons talks about Zac Brown Band and collaborating with them on the Southbound album opener, “Black Water.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Doobie Tom Johnston says that one of the things that the band loved and appreciated was the excitement of the guest artists who came to sing and play on Southbound. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Visit the band’s official website at DoobieBros.com for an awesome digital jukebox, behind-the-scenes interviews and studio clips, and much more!
• On Thursday, GuitarWorld.com ran a feature on the album and premiered the lyric video for “Rockin’ Down the Highway” with Brad Paisley — check it out here!
• You can find Southbound in stores now, or download it here, on iTunes!
• Check out the full track listing and guest artists below!

“Black Water” (with Zac Brown Band)
“Listen to the Music” (with Blake Shelton and Hunter Hayes on guitar)
“What a Fool Believes” (with Sara Evans)
“Long Train Runnin’” (with Toby Keith and Huey Lewis on harmonica)
“China Grove” (with Chris Young)
“Takin’ It to the Streets” (with Love and Theft)
“Jesus Is Just Alright” (with Casey James)
“Rockin’ Down the Highway” (with Brad Paisley)
“Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me)” (with Tyler Farr)
“South City Midnight Lady” (with Jerrod Niemann)
“You Belong to Me” (with Amanda Sudano Ramirez of the band Johnnyswim and Vince Gill on guitar)
“Nobody” (with Charlie Worsham)

  Doobie Tom Johnston says that the band didn’t know what to expect when they began recording Southbound. (:19)
“We didn’t know what to expect, to be honest with you, comin’ into this project. We’ve never re-cut these songs, except for one, ever. And not knowing and never having done anything like this before — we’ve never done anything with other artists in that sense — and we got in here, and once I started hearing the tracking, I was sold. I said, ‘This is killer.'”

  Doobies Tom Johnston and John McFee took it as a good sign when Chris Young hit the studio to record “China Grove.” (:22)
Tom: “He came in, I think it was the first day we were trackin’, and…”
John: “Mmm-hmm.”
Tom: “…I don’t for sure if it was our first track, but it might have been, was ‘China Grove.’ And he sang that. And he came in and did a reference vocal on it, and we all looked at each other and went, ‘Man, he sang the hell out of this.’”
John: “He just sounded great from the get-go. So it was like, ‘Wow, maybe this is gonna work!'” (laughs)
Tom: “Yeah, definitely. It was a positive sign.”

  Doobie Patrick Simmons talks about Southbound album opener, “Black Water,” with Zac Brown Band. (1:13)
“We had the great opportunity to record ‘Black Water’ with the Zac Brown Band, and what a pleasure that is, of course, for us ’cause kind of one of my favorite country bands, one of my favorite country artists. And I have said this in the past, but I think their band is so much like our band in terms of how they perform their music. A lot of it is centered around the great harmonies and heartfelt, storytelling type songs, and that’s really where we’re comin’ from. That particular song, ‘Black Water,’ is really about my experiences in New Orleans when I was there in the early ’70s. First time I had ever been to New Orleans, I kind of start writing that song really around that time period. And then when Zac and the band came in to…or when we heard Zac and the band were comin’ in to work on the song, we were pretty excited. Very excited. And I think they really nailed it, you know, the fiddle part is just spectacular, kind of departs from the original in many ways, but you know, he really nailed it. And Zac sang his butt off on the track, you know, he really brings it all the way.”

  Doobie Tom Johnston says that the band loved the enthusiasm and performances of the guest artists on Southbound. (:13)
“They didn’t come in, ‘Oh, do we have to?’ It wasn’t that kind of a deal at all. They dug it. They wanted to do it. And it sounds like it. You can hear it on the performances, which, by the way, every one of ’em did a killer job. Every single artist just knocked it out of the park.”