Little Feat

August 3, 2010

Opener: Jamie Holka Trio

Little Feat is very possibly the last-man -standing example of what used to be the norm in American music, a fusion of a broad span of styles and genres into something utterly distinctive. Feat took California rock, funk, folk, jazz, country, rockabilly, and New Orleans swamp boogie and more, stirred it into a rich gumbo, and has been leading people in joyful dance ever since. Join the Band sums up that story, and it's a complex and interesting one.

And it all began because in 1969 Frank Zappa was smart enough to fire Lowell George from the Mothers of Invention and tell him to start a band of his own. George first settled on keyboard wizard Bill Payne, then added drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Roy Estrada (also a Zappa vet). They were quickly signed by Warner Bros., and began working on the first of 12 albums with that venerable company. The first album, Little Feat, featured the instant-classic tune "Willin'," and the follow-up Sailin' Shoes added "Easy to Slip," "Trouble," "Tripe Face Boogie," "Cold Cold Cold" and the title track to their repertoire.

1973's Dixie Chicken gave them the title track and "Fat Man in the Bathtub," as good a blues as any rock band's ever written. The hits kept coming: the title track from Feats Don't Fail Me Now (1974) and The Last Record Album (1975), which included "Rock and Roll Doctor," "All That You Dream," and "Oh, Atlanta."

Success is hard. It cost Feat their founder, Lowell George, who passed in 1979 while working on Down on the Farm. And it cost them, temporarily, their joy; shortly after, they disbanded.

In 1986, Barrere and Payne met up in a chance jam session, and found that they could still find that inspiration. What they had written in

"Hangin' On To The Good Times Here" - "...although we went our own ways, we couldn't escape from where we came, so we find ourselves back at the table again, telling stories of survivors and friends" - was of course true, as with any righteous song - and in 1988 they hit the road again, where they've been ever since, joined by Craig Fuller on vocals and Fred Tackett on guitar.

Visit Little Feat online at: http://www.littlefeat.com