Producer David Huff is bringing one of his all-time favorite bands from the past into the present with a new project. “The Doobie Brothers are such an important band in the history of music. The hits transcend time,” explained Huff. “I listened to them growing up in Brentwood and practiced drums to their records.”
He approached The Doobie’s manager Bruce Cohn with the idea of pairing the band with Country stars for re-imagined versions of The Doobie’s classic hits. Cohen set up a meeting between Huff and the band. “I told them, ‘I think there’s a whole new audience for you, and there’s a way to make you relevant to today’s market just by doing the songs a little bit differently.’ They were curious about the project, but it took laying it out piece by piece to get them on board, specifically about how to rework the songs and ideas for touring.”
The result is Southbound, set for a Nov. 4 release on Arista Nashville. UMG Nashville had major success with Tuskegee, a similar release by Lionel Richie and Country stars in 2012, which sold more than 1 million units and was supported by a major tour by Richie.
Though The Doobie Brothers line up has changed through the years, members who participated in the new album are from the band’s earliest incarnation including frontmen Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston, and multi-instrumentalist John McFee. Huff and Cohen also reached out to former member Michael McDonald, who was all-in on the new album after a visit to the studio on the first day of tracking.
Once the band was on board, Huff, Cohen and Sony mapped what Huff calls a “fantasy list” of Country artists who might participate in the project. He said it wasn’t an easy task because The Doobie Brothers set the bar so high with their original versions of the songs. Among those who jumped in are Blake Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Zac Brown Band, Sara Evans, Chris Young, Jerrod Niemann, Vince Gill, Casey James, Tyler Farr, Charlie Worsham, and Love and Theft. “Once we started asking the artists, the overall response we got was really positive,” he continued. “It worked out that a few artists picked their own songs, and we picked for some others. Jerrod picked ‘South City Midnight Lady,’ which is a favorite of a lot of artists. He killed it.”

Huff joked, “Zac Brown didn’t have a choice. I hounded his manager Matt Maher to get him on the project. I didn’t take no for an answer because I could envision him on the songs. And Zac did a great job on ‘Black Water,’ with plenty of harmonies from his band and the breakdown in the middle.”
With so many artists involved, Huff said the recording process was a logistical nightmare. “I would get a call from an artist on a Sunday night and they’d say they could record Tuesday, and I had to make it happen.” He laughed in hindsight, “There was one time where I booked all the players and forgot to get a studio.” Still he managed to get several performers, including Shelton, in the studio with The Doobie Brothers at the same time.
The band hadn’t spent much time in Music City, and even though Huff frequently works in Los Angeles, he had a dream of building the project in his hometown. “We cut records differently in Nashville, we’ve got some of the world’s best players,” stated Huff. “So we tapped the core session players, with The Doobies interspersed. For example, Patrick wrote ‘Black Water’ and sang it originally, so he played acoustic guitar with Ilya Toshinsky and the other guys on the new recording. The Doobies also did some auxiliary parts and sang with the artists on some parts.” The Doobie Brothers flew in from California multiple times last fall and winter for sessions at Starstruck, Black Bird and House of Blues. “I don’t want to speak for them,” acknowledged Huff, “but I think they are absolutely impressed with Nashville. The musicianship was really evident to them.”

Video production company Rink Entertainment documented the making of the album, asking the artists to describe how The Doobie Brothers influenced them. “Their answers were fascinating,” said Huff. “They go into quite a lot of detail, which was especially surprising coming from the younger artists.”
He teamed with his brother, mega-hit producer Dann Huff to co-produce four songs on the album. Dann offered, “I think this will be the first time that Nashville will hear how very talented David is. This really was his baby and I see it as his entry into the Country market.”
“His talent in re-imagining these classic hits is incredible,” agreed Sony Music Nashville VP of A&R Jim Catino. “David has done a stellar job working with each of these amazing artists and creating a great energy for The Doobies and everyone involved.”
“This project has been a passion of mine from the beginning to completion,” summed Huff. “To come full circle from playing their music as a teenager, to working with the guys—I’m pretty proud of it.”

Meet David Huff:
“I got into music, started playing on records, and never looked back. I love Country and pop—I’m musically schizophrenic. Growing up in Nashville Country music is part of your DNA, but I switch hats a lot.” Nashville native Huff started banging on the drums in high school, usually playing with older brother Dann. He moved to Los Angeles after high school and that became his home base while touring. Dann and David formed the band Giant, which was signed to A&M Records and toured all over the world around 1989-1991. When that success faded, he became a sideman for Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, and several pop artists. About four years ago his focus shifted to production.
Besides his work on The Doobie Brothers album, Huff recently remixed the Avicii hit “Hey Brother” for Country radio. “It’s folk meets EDM. The goal was to keep the integrity of the song, but treat it so our market can absorb it. It was a challenge but it turned out well. I kept Dan Tyminski’s classic vocals and recreated everything else. Drum machines and horns don’t typically come into our market, so I replaced the horns with mandolin and fiddle. Instrumentation can be a key to unlock many doors. We captured what it needed to be for this market.”
Southbound Track Listing:
“Black Water” with Zac Brown Band
“China Grove” with Chris Young
“Jesus Is Just Alright” with Casey James
“Listen to the Music” with Blake Shelton with Hunter Hayes on guitar
“Long Train Runnin’” with Toby Keith
“Nobody” with Charlie Worsham
“Rockin’ Down the Highway” with Brad Paisley
“South City Midnight Lady” with Jerrod Niemann
“Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)” with Tyler Farr
“Takin’ It to the Streets” with Love and Theft
“What a Fool Believes” with Sara Evans
“You Belong to Me” with Amanda Sudano Ramirez of the band Johnnyswim with Vince Gill on guitar

In the summer of 1927, Victor Records talent scout Ralph Peer discovered two of country music’s most enduring superstars, and that historic event is commemorated in a new museum.
Bristol, the small Appalachian city that straddles the state line between Tennessee and Virginia, staged a weekend celebration for the opening of its Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, the $12 million museum honors Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family and the other 17 artists recorded by Victor during those 1927 recording sessions. The Bristol Sessions have been called “The Big Bang of Country Music.”
“Pretty soon, people around the world will know that Bristol is the birthplace of country music,” said Leah Ross, the new facility’s executive director.
“What happened in 1927 impacted all kinds of genres of American popular music,” added museum director/curator Jessica Turner. By opening the state-of-the-art museum and re-branding Bristol as The Birthplace of Country Music, the city hopes to benefit from music tourism, just as Nashville and Memphis do.
“The economic impact of this museum is $50 million over the next five years,” declared Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Tourism is the No. 2 industry in Tennessee,” agreed Tennessee Commissioner of Tourism Development Susan Whitaker. “It has had a $16.2 billion impact over the past seven years.”

“I’ve been thinking about this all week long,” said country star Carlene Carter, who is the granddaughter of Maybelle Carter of The Carter Family. “What a wonderful, wonderful gift to the city of Bristol.”
“This is a fantastic moment,” said Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. “I’m just proud to be a small part of this.”
Ramsey, a native of Bristol, secured Tennessee money for the project despite the fact that the museum is technically in Virginia. State Street runs through the center of the town. Tennessee is on one side of the street, and Virginia is on the other. The 1927 Bristol Sessions were held in a hat factory on the Tennessee side. The museum is 50 yards away on the Virginia side.
For many years, those historic sessions were not acknowledged by the community, although then as now, the area is home to a large pool of country talent. “I always thought Bristol should be as big as Nashville, musically,” said Grand Ole Opry star Jesse McReynolds. His grandfather was the fiddler in the Bull Mountain Moonshiners band recorded during the 1927 Bristol Sessions.

The opening-weekend activities began with a media day on Friday. Visitors viewed the 12,000-square-foot museum’s films and tried its interactive displays.
John Carter Cash narrates the introductory film, Bound for Bristol. In the next gallery, touch screens and listening stations deal with Appalachian geography and the Bristol Sessions participants. Acoustic instruments and their histories are the subjects of both display cases and a film. Gospel music is also dealt with in both modes.
Another interactive station demonstrates the many versions of Bristol Sessions songs, including ones by modern artists such as Natalie Merchant and Nirvana. At a karaoke station, visitors record their own versions of the songs, which sometimes result in attempts to yodel like Jimmie Rodgers. Gov. McAuliffe recorded the Carters’ “Single Girl, Married Girl.”
A radio room contains antique memorabilia, but will also serve as the studio for WBCM, the museum’s radio station. A nearby screen shows TV footage of folk stars performing old-time music alongside framed posters of films such as Bonnie & Clyde, Deliverance and O Brother Where Art Thou. One station teaches the art of audio mixing. The finale theater is “an immersion experience” called The Unbroken Circle with a curved screen showing multiple images of contemporary performers saluting their roots.
Outside the museum, a fine-art print and a new “Take the Stage” bronze statue both saluted the museum’s grand opening.
In the facility’s theater, a revived Farm and Fun Time radio show was taped for WBCM’s inaugural broadcast in October. The original Farm and Fun Time aired over Bristol’s WCYB from 1946 until the early 1960s.

The revival show co-starred Opry artists Jesse McReynolds and Ralph Stanley, both of whom were regulars on the original Farm and Fun Time (as members of Jim & Jesse and The Stanley Brothers, respectively). The Blue Ridge Entertainers, an old-timey duo consisting of Kris Truelsen and Coleman Aiken, were also featured. McReynolds played “Johnny Goodwin,” the tune his grandfather played during The Bristol Sessions, on the same antique fiddle that was used on the recording.
Saturday’s official ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Georgia Warren, the last living participant in The Bristol Sessions. Now 98 years old, she was an 11-year-old who sang in the 1927 choir that Peer dubbed The Tennessee Mountaineers. In the museum, she readily sang along with the recording of “Standing on the Promises” that she made four score and seven years ago.
“I’ll be 99 in November,” Warren said. “I’ve lost my memories of a lot of things, but sometimes that day comes back.
“There were six girls in our family, but I was the only one who would sing with my daddy.” She recalled being frightened to be recording in the dark factory building and holding her father’s hand throughout the songs. After the ribbon cutting, Warren sang “Amazing Grace” with the media. “I’ve sung in choirs all my life,” she said.
“This is special to me. I appreciate y’all doing all of this. I never thought it would be as big as this. It means a lot to me.”

Also attending the ribbon cutting was Hee Haw’s Roni Stoneman. Her parents were recorded during the Bristol Sessions. Because the Stonemans already had recording success by 1927, Peer used Pop Stoneman to recruit others to the sessions.
Roni Stoneman, Carlene Carter and Jim Lauderdale were among the entertainers that evening during the grand-opening weekend. Carter performed such Carter family favorites such as “The Storms Are on the Ocean,” “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight” and “My Dixie Darling” from her new Carter Girl CD. She accompanied herself on guitar, playing in her grandmother’s style.
“I’ve been dong this since I was 16,” she said. “If you were a Carter girl, they threw you on the stage, and if you could sing at all, you stayed.”
“We’re going to try and continue the ‘Circle’ that was started here,” promised Lauderdale.
The first Carter Family recording session was on Aug. 1, 1927. In the remote Maces Spring mountain community 20 miles east of Bristol, the old Carter homestead celebrated that anniversary with a two-day festival. Maybelle’s granddaughter, Lorrie Carter Bennett, headlined. The festival was organized by Rita Forrester and Dale Jett, the grandchildren of The Carter Family’s Sara and A.P. Carter. This was the 40th anniversary of this annual gathering.
Abingdon, VA, 13 miles north of Bristol, was also staging a weekend arts event, The Virginia Highlands Festival.

Bristol continued its celebration on Sunday with a taping of radio’s Mountain Stage in its historic, restored Paramount Theater. It booked Jett, Bennett and Carlene Carter, plus Martina McBride, Larry Groce and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.
The city next takes the spotlight during the third weekend in September with the BCM’s 14th annual Rhythm & Roots Reunion fest. It is expected to draw 50,000 people this year and will showcase Emmylou Harris, Dale Watson, David Grisman, The Seldom Scene, 18 South, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Marty Raybon, Chuck Mead, Sturgill Simpson and more.