Why Were The Doobie Brothers At The CMA Awards?

A question I saw numerous times on social media last night was, "Why are the Doobie Brothers -- an iconic 70's and 80's rock group -- on the CMA Awards?" Well, outside of the fact that many of their songs, like "Black Water", "Long Train Runnin "', and "Rockin' Down the Highway", have been covered by a TON of different country acts in concert, I'm guessing it's also because a new Doobie Brothers album featuring duets with today's hottest country stars was released on Tuesday.

According to Rolling Stone, the album is called "Southbound." Here are just a few of the songs included:“Listen to the Music” with Blake Shelton and Hunter Hayes, “Rockin’ Down the Highway” with Brad Paisley and “Black Water” with the Zac Brown Band, in addition to others.

My friend is a huge Doobie Brothers fan, and I've seen them live several times myself, most recently at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, and when they were at Treasure Island Casino. Even though they've been at it now for over 40 years, they still sound good, and still put on a good show. And, their songs sound very similar to many of the current songs on the country charts, so I guess it's not surprising they finally did a country duets album. I thought they sounded pretty good last night on the CMA's, along with Hillary Scott, Jennifer Nettles and Hunter Hayes.  In case you missed it, here was their performance of Listen To The Music...