Open Wide

As you can expect from an album the title song should be a highlight. Not true in every case - but this time by all means. When listening to Wide Open N-Way you're first immediately forced to believe that this is an american westcoast psych band. Accent-free vocals and a very cool straightforward sound with acoustic guitar. But then they are showing another second sight right away with a weird piano and guitar echoes dominated krautrocked interlude…

Since Full Moon Fever was an unqualified commercial and critical success, perhaps it made sense that Tom Petty chose to follow its shiny formula when he reunited with the Heartbreakers for its follow-up, Into the Great Wide Open…

Wide Open marks Michael McDonald’s first set of original material in 17 years. McDonald wrote Wide Open over several years and recorded the tracks at his Nashville studio with drummer Shannon Forrest (Faith Hill, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Toto) and a crew of the city's session players and features collaborations with guitarist-singer Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule), guitarist Robben Ford, bassist Marcus Miller and saxophonist Branford Marsalis.

Wide Open Light Is a family of songs I’ve written. I’ve selected them with the care one might put into a personal photo album. To that effect, I’d call it a sonic family photo album, each track a close relative to the next. The story behind this record is simple. I have been writing songs now for over 30 years. It’s what I long to do, love to do, and at times feel I need to do, and hope to continue doing until the ink runs dry and the notes fade. But for now, Wide Open Light. Deliberately minimalist, the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production. (produced by myself, and my longtime collaborators Danny Kalb and Jason Mozersky). Wide Open Light is a beautifully raw album that features appearances from the likes of Jack Johnson, Shelby Lynne and Piers Faccini.