You could fill both a record store and a hat store with the albums DON WAS has touched and the lids he’s donned on the way to six Grammys, an Emmy, a BAFTA, and the respect of musicians and fans of all ages worldwide. In nearly 50 years in the music business the Was (Not Was) bandleader has collaborated with an astonishing list of top-flight artists in pursuit of making a truthful, transcendent, healing and joyful noise. As a producer, songwriter, recording artist, music supervisor, documentarian, musical director, radio host, multi-instrumentalist, and President of Blue Note Records, Was has been enthusiastically and fearlessly genre fluid, moving freely across rock, pop, jazz, country, reggae, R&B, and world music.
Those sessions and shows have taken him all over the globe to work with everyone from Gregg Allman to John Mayer to Zucchero and every letter in between, bringing out the best in Hall of Fame names like the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, and scores more.
But in all that time, there was one thing Don Was had not done: Released an album under his own name.
That’s about to change with Groove in the Face of Adversity, the record that brings the world traveler back home to where it all started, the Motor City.
Out October 10, 2025 and recorded with his latest group The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, the album’s six tracks — some recorded live — encompass so much of what has marked Was’s many musical contributions over the years, combining impeccable musicianship with gleeful abandon. It features thoughtful sonic cross-pollination as songs seep from steamy juke joint blues to mercurial flights of jazz fantasy to loose-limbed funk. All of it tied together, crucially, with a palpably beating heart. By turns joyful and poignant, it is a fitting way to introduce himself to this moment: Was (As He Is).
While the album is being released in 2025, this renewed blossoming of Was marks the culmination of a tough creative period going back 30 years.
“I had a moment in the early ’90s where I’d gotten to work with all my heroes —Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Mick and Keith, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson —all the best writers that I can think of,” he says. “I had writer’s block for about five or six years because I’d sit down, play a few chords and say, ‘Well, what’s the fucking point of this? Brian Wilson’s just up the street. What does the world need me for?’”
It was a bleak five years until he had an epiphany while working with Nelson. “I was just so filled with admiration for him,” he says of the legendary singer-songwriter. “But I realized that Willie never dropped acid and went to see the MC5 at the Grande Ballroom at 16 years old. He’s one of the greatest writers ever but growing up in 1968 Detroit is not part of his makeup. There are very few people making records right now who have that as part of their makeup. I thought ‘The thing that makes you different becomes your superpower – just be the best version of yourself that you can be.’”
Groove in the Face of Adversity finds Was finally unleashing that power with the help of a group of like-minded souls.
“The mistake most record companies make is that they sign artists they like and then try to change them into whatever’s popular in the moment,” notes Was of the timeless tale of squelched creativity. He knows as a producer and label head that, “instead, you should be accentuating the thing that makes your artist different from everybody else. It’s a good lesson and it has served me in good stead. That notion came up again when it was time to put this band together. I thought, all right, pick people who come from the same milieu as you. People who grew up listening to the same radio stations, going to the same bars to hear music, playing with each other. There’s definitely a Detroit sound.”
The Pan-Detroit Ensemble includes long-time collaborators like Blue Note Records artist Dave McMurray on sax and Eminem’s Oscar-winning collaborator, keyboardist Luis Resto. Additional musicians include trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Masai, guitarist Wayne Gerard, and powerhouse vocalist Steffanie Christi’an.