Michael McDonald faces uncomfortable questions on ‘Wide Open’

You don’t have to tell singer Michael McDonald: He’s fully aware of how much time he’s taken between albums.

McDonald released “Wide Open” in 2017, nine years after “Soul Speak,” a collection of covers and a few originals.

Before “Soul Speak,” McDonald released the critically acclaimed “Motown” and “Motown Two,” in 2003 and 2004, respectively, which feature McDonald’s take on Motown classics.

“I think that at the rate that I make records, almost any noise I make could be considered a comeback because it’s been a long time in between,” he said with a laugh during a recent phone interview.

But during those years between “Soul Speak” and “Wide Open,” McDonald never stopped performing.

In fact, he performed at Northern Quest Resort and Casino in August 2017, a month before the release of “Wide Open.”

As such, McDonald said he sees himself as a touring musician more than a studio rat. He squeezes in recording sessions when he can, often trying to get a stream of consciousness going and record “things that feel like they’re in a moment in time, that have something special to offer.”

But McDonald’s mind is often on the road and keeping his live performance sharp.

“As I get older, I feel like that’s what it’s really all about for me,” he said. “Somehow that’s crucial to me. To be able to get into the studio and do anything of merit, I have to be having worked live as recently as possible and keep my abilities honed as much as possible on that level.”

Since kicking off his summer tour with Chaka Khan in late June, McDonald has had plenty of opportunities to hone those onstage skills.

The tour, which continues through August, brings McDonald and Khan to Northern Quest on Tuesday.

This is the first time McDonald and Khan have toured together, though the pair recorded a duet called “Time to Be Lovers,” which was featured on the “Beverly Hills 90210” soundtrack in 1992.

McDonald recorded his part in New York and Khan hers in Los Angeles, so it wasn’t until they were both performing at a jazz festival, in Raleigh, North Carolina, McDonald believes, that they finally met.

“It’s always fun to work with another act that really puts us on notice,” McDonald said. “Her band is always a great organization and really tight, and her performances every night are phenomenal. It’s really good for us.

“It’s the kind of thing we need. We’ve been playing just enough years where if we’re not careful, we’ll get complacent, so it’s good to be out there with somebody who’s got us on our heels.”

The former Doobie Brothers singer is touring in support of “Wide Open,” his first album of all original material after his trio of covers albums.

After focusing on others’ songs and stories for so long, when beginning to write new music, McDonald wondered if he had “anything relevant” to say.

But McDonald said he tries his best to be on guard and make sure he’s actually listening to what’s happening around him, not closing himself off into his own little world.

“That’s one thing that recording does do for me,” he said. “It forces me to face my questions about life that I would otherwise maybe start to avoid as I got older.”

McDonald has seen the need to address those uncomfortable questions, or things that have, in the past, been swept under the rug, become more intense over time.

McDonald namechecks the Doobie Brothers song “Takin’ It to the Streets” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” which he often covers during live shows, as two songs that are still as relevant today as they were when they were released.

“Wide Open,” too, closes with two songs – “Too Short” and “Free a Man” – that feature socially conscious lyrics.

“When you employ the tactics of hate/You’ve already lost the war on principle,” McDonald sings in “Free a Man.”

McDonald said he doesn’t often take on social subjects in his songs and that the few times he does, the solution always seems to be found in human nature, “in how we approach life around us as individuals, how we see the world around us as individuals and how we relate to each other as individuals.”

As he continues to write and release music, McDonald hopes to always be a part of the process of looking at questions or negative aspects of society that have long been unanswered or unaddressed and try to provide some clarity.

“I don’t think there will ever be a time when we’re not waking up more, so I want to be part of that, even if I’m in my 80s,” he said. “I want to be aware of the questions whose time has come to really address.”