Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

No small Feat

Blues, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll: Little Feat has been playing them all for nearly four decades and is still going strong.

By PHILIP BOOTH
Published March 17, 2005

[Photo: Tampa Bay Blues Festival]

LITTLE FEAT is scheduled to perform at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. From left, Fred Tackett, Sam Clayton, Shaun Murphy, Paul Barrere and Kenny Gradney.

Newcomers to the Little Feat fold, and maybe even casual fans, often are burdened with a misunderstanding about the durable group, organized in 1969 by the late Lowell George.

It's easy to assume the band's members are as Southern as the titles of their hits Dixie Chicken and Oh Atlanta. These and other favorites are built on an infectious blend of chugging blues, sticky funk, rock guitar, twang-tinged vocals and jazzy touches that lend a distinctly Southern tint to the sound of Little Feat, which headlines the Tampa Bay Blues Festival this weekend.

But five of the group's seven members live in Southern California: drummer and co-founder Richie Hayward, guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney and percussionist Sam Clayton, all of whom joined for 1973's breakthrough Dixie Chicken album; and Fred Tackett, the guitarist, mandolin player and trumpeter who officially joined the band for Let It Roll, its 1988 comeback disc.

Keyboardist Billy Payne, the other survivor of the original lineup, is a Texas native who now lives in upper Michigan. Female lead singer Sean Murphy, who signed on as the band's lead vocalist for 1995's Ain't Had Enough Fun, recently relocated to Nashville.

"That Southern thing is really attributed to the fact that we go back to the early roots of rock 'n' roll, which basically came out of the South," Barrere, 56, said from his home in Woodland Hills, Calif. The guitarist and singer has been based in the San Fernando Valley for 22 years. "We certainly have grabbed onto that New Orleans kind of feeling in a lot of that material. We can shuffle with the best of them.

"When I first joined, the band was known for being very eclectic. They recorded Willin' and Tripe Face Boogie on the same record (1972's Sailin' Shoes). Those were musical contradictions, to say the least. There were 10- and 15-minute instrumentals that we used to play. We were an early jam band, if you will."

Then came Dixie Chicken, directly influenced by George's absorption with New Orleans R&B, though he is a native of Hollywood, Calif. The album, with the help of its popular title track, established the band's signature sound.

"When Dixie Chicken came out, everybody glommed onto that," Barrere said. "Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Barrere co-wrote the title track and wrote Skin It Back for the 1974 album) continued with that same kind of swampy feel. I think probably the overwhelming majority of people would probably list us as a Southern-oriented rock band, just because they don't know the depth, if you will, of our music."

The band's rangy musical interests might be suggested by the company it keeps: Little Feat in recent years has played bluegrass, blues and jam band festivals.

"We used to get a lot of raised eyebrows when people heard that we were playing a blues festival," Barrere said. "Then they'd hear things like Apolitical Views, and they'd say, "My God, the boys can play some blues.' "

And so could a woman, as Murphy showed when she was asked to join the band. She had contributed backup vocals to several earlier Little Feat recordings, and she had worked with Payne and Tackett in Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band.

Murphy took over from onetime Pure Prairie League singer Craig Fuller, who had led Little Feat to gold-selling success with Let It Roll. The change in the band's sound irked some fans, but the band brushed off any minor flak.

"When I would hear from your typical male audience member that was like sort of upset that there was a girl in the band, I would go, "What's the difference?' We're still as crazy as we ever were," Barrere said. "We're still as eclectic as we ever were. I'd like to think that we play all-American roots music: blues, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll."

Thirty-six years after George founded Little Feat, the band is as prolific as ever, thanks in part to its decision to release studio and live recordings on its own label, Hot Tomato. Last year, the band released a live album recorded in St. Louis, and two more live discs are on the way this summer and fall.

Payne's latest solo album, Cielo Norte, was recently released on Hot Tomato. Also in the works on the label is a DVD of a duo show Barrere did with Tackett in Carmel, Calif., in 2004.

"It's just a sign of the times and the technology," Barrere said. "It's so easy to record at home and get good quality recordings. Why be at a studio where you're paying time on the building? You can just be creating instead."

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 12:33:08]