The Dukes of September is one of the more intriguing tours taking to the road - and is the kind of tour that is bound to become increasingly common as the core members of different groups decide their combined drawing power gives them the opportunity to do shows in venues they would have a hard time filling as solo acts. As Ringo Starr, who has used the revue format over multiple years for his All Starr Band (this year including Gary Wright, Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer) can attest, it's a lot of fun for the musicians and gives audiences the chance to hear refreshed versions of the best material each artist has been involved with, along with great covers all of them like. Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, former Doobie Brothers vocalist Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs comprise the Dukes of September. Fagen calls the revue type of show '...the most fun kind of show to do.' He logged a good amount of time working in that atmosphere while filling-in as a vocalist with the Levon Helm Band in the aftermath of a throat biopsy a year ago that left the Band drummer under doctor's orders not to sing for a number of months. One cover done with the Helm Band that Fagen hopes to do with the Dukes is the Grateful Dead's Shakedown Street, a song he calls, '...a fantastic song with a beautiful lyric'. McDonald, who contributed background vocals on the Steely Dan albums Katie Lied, Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho, told the Newark Star Ledger's Jay Lustig that I've Got News For You from Ray Charles is a song he hopes to work into set lists for the tour that starts August 19. Fagen enlisted McDonald, Scaggs and others for a similar revue he mounted in the early 90's using the name New York Rhythm and Soul Revue. An album recorded live at the Beacon Theater in New York was released in 1991.
NJ.com
