The Doobie Brothers are gearing up to release a new album called Walk This Road next year, and it'll be their first with Michael McDonald in more than 40 years. Founding member Pat Simmons shared the news in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday (December 30).

"Season’s Greetings to all our fans out there. It’s hard to believe another year just shot by like a rocket!" he began. "We’re currently celebrating almost 56 years together as a band. 55 years since we released our very first self titled album The Doobie Brothers. It’s been a long winding road since those early days but we’re still working together, doing our best to remain creative, and looking forward to bringing our music to you folks out there again next year."

"2024 was very good to us," Simmons noted. "We were so lucky to start our touring season opening shows in The United Kingdom with the Eagles. When we returned home we jumped right into our usual tour schedule working with our wonderfully talented friends Robert Cray and later Steve Winwood on a musical journey that took us all over the country from one end to the other. Finally we finished out the year up in Canada where we were met with a warm welcome from our friends in the north."

"Here’s the goal we’ve set for 2025. This train keeps rollin’ down the track and we’re almost ready to release our new album Walk This Road sometime after the first of the year," he continued. "We have 10 new songs sung by Tom [Johnston], Michael [McDonald], and Pat [Simmons]. The three of us wrote songs and collaborated together. We had a lot of fun recording it and we feel very proud of the results. John McFee added his incredible musical talents as well. Once more we turned to the amazing John Shanks who produced, wrote, and played on the tracks with us. Fortunately we’re back working with our friends at Warner Brothers/Rhino Records on this release. We’ll probably debut a song soon after the first of the year and the full album will follow sometime in the Spring/Summer."

McDonald was a part of The Doobie Brothers' 2014 album of reimagined songs, Southbound; however, the singer last contributed original material to 1980's One Step Closer. See Simmons' full message below.

Bill George