The Doobie Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert

The Doobie Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

Bobby Carter | November 5, 2025

There's often a moment during a Tiny Desk concert when an artist realizes that playing in an office was either the right or wrong thing to do. After starting the set with "Takin' It to the Streets," one of The Doobie Brothers' many hits, Tom Johnston tells the audience, "It's not like this at gigs. We just played up in New York at Jones Beach last night and y'all are outdoing them. It's pretty cool." For a band as accomplished as this to still encounter new experiences as performers says a lot about the energy bouncing around the walls of NPR headquarters.

With over 50 years in the music business, plus numerous awards and accolades — including inductions into the Rock & Roll and Songwriters Hall of Fame — Johnston, Michael McDonald, Patrick Simmons and John McFee don't have anything more to prove. But the living members of The Doobie Brothers reunited this year and released Walk This Road. To support the new album, they hit the road and stopped by the Desk to play a new tune, "Angels & Mercy." But they didn't leave without giving us a couple more hits and had the whole crowd singing along to "Black Water" and "Listen to the Music."

SET LIST

"Takin' It to the Streets"

"Black Water"

"Angels & Mercy"

"Listen to the Music"

MUSICIANS

Michael McDonald: vocals, keys, mandolin

Tom Johnston: vocals, guitar

Patrick Simmons: vocals, guitar

John McFee: vocals, guitar, violin

John Cowan: bass, background vocals

Marc Russo: sax

Marc Quiñones: conga, percussion, background vocals

Ed Toth: drums

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Bobby Carter

Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant

Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault

Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel

Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai

Production Assistants: Dhanika Pineda, Dora Levite

Photographer: Grace Raver

Tiny Desk Team: Josh Newell, Ashley Pointer

Series Editor: Lars Gotrich

Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

Executive Director: Sonali Mehta

Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

#nprmusic #tinydesk #thedoobiebrothers

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