Katharine McPhee Duets With Late Dan Seals on 'The Healing Kind'

Katharine McPhee has recorded a posthumous duet with the late Dan Seals on a new version of "The Healing Kind," released ahead of the tribute album 'Dan Seals & Friends: The Last Duet,' due August 28 through Melody Place Records and the Dan Seals Estate. The two singers never shared a studio. Seals' original vocals anchor the track.

"Singing 'The Healing Kind' was both emotional and beautiful," McPhee said. "Dan's voice and spirit are still so present in the music, and I'm honored to have been part of keeping that legacy alive."

Where does the song come from?

"The Healing Kind" first appeared on Seals' 1995 album 'In A Quiet Room.' Written by Gregg Luck and Ronnie Bowman, the song deals with swallowing your pride, missing someone you have lost and discovering that getting over a relationship can take far longer than you would like.

Seals had an extraordinary ability to make heartbreak sound conversational. His delivery could be gentle and restrained, letting the story carry the weight. McPhee's expressive vocals give the song a fresh perspective while preserving its original emotional centre, according to the announcement.

Who else appears on 'The Last Duet'?

The tribute album pairs Seals' original vocals with a lineup of guest artists:

• Blake Shelton
• Jamey Johnson
• Luke Bryan
• Katharine McPhee

Seals' recordings remain central to the project, while the guest singers bring their own experiences and interpretations to the songs. The set gathers a roster of country performers around a catalogue that helped shape the genre.

What does this change for McPhee?

The collaboration extends a career that began when McPhee finished as runner-up on Season five of 'American Idol,' where her powerful voice made her one of the show's standout performers. Her self-titled debut album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2007.

Since then she has moved through pop music, television and musical theatre. Fans of the series 'Smash' know how naturally she shifts between musical styles, and her performances in 'Waitress' took her to Broadway and London's West End. She has also been spending time in Nashville working on new music, which makes the Seals duet a fitting stop on that path.

For listeners, the duet offers another chance to hear the warmth and emotional honesty that made Seals a beloved performer — a voice from 1995 meeting one of today's, across generations. A good song can have a remarkable life, especially when artists keep finding new reasons to sing it.