Little Feat

People often ask me who my favourite recording artists are.  I usually answer that my tastes are so varied and diverse that it is difficult to single out one in particular.  However, for many years I have reserved a soft spot for Little Feat, more specifically the era (1971-79) when the late, great Lowell George was at the helm.

Analysing the appeal of Little Feat is tricky, and it is a truism that the most worthwhile works of art defy conventional and straightforward analysis.  Suffice to say that once people listen to vintage Little Feat, they invariably become confirmed fans for life.

I gravitated towards Little Feat through my interest in country-rock and folk-rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Little Feat were loosely affiliated with that "movement", although they never really fell into any easy or convenient categories or pigeon-holes.  When properly checking out their music for the first time, I was immediately impressed and attracted by the humour, the technical prowess of the musicians, and the absence of pretension.

Although the style and emphasis of Little Feat's music evolved throughout the 1970s, one can always detect a certain ambience and spirit, which permeates their work of that period.  One of the things which contributed to their uniqueness was the background of the musicians, having feet in both the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart camp and the then thriving roots-rock genre.  It has been opined that the resultant quirkiness was one of the things which deprived them of major commercial success, but then again without this amalgam of personae Little Feat would have been just another band.

In the eyes of the casual listener, it is easy to see Little Feat as a vehicle for the talent and charisma of Lowell George, but I would interject that this is an inaccurate summary.  Yes, Lowell's distinctive guitar playing, singing and songwriting was a central plank, but they were so much more than a one-man show.  The other members, and particularly Bill Payne and Richie Hayward, helped to conjure up the irresistible funkiness and groove which characterised Feat in their pomp. The "subsidiary" members contributed more than is commonly appreciated.

Little Feat's first two albums, the eponymous 1971 debut and 1972's Sailin' Shoes, dripped with blues-rock and country influences, all infused with the trademark off-beat humour and general weirdness. Little Feat contains more than a token nod to the psychedelic and California rock idioms, with more introspection and mellowness than would become customary later in the decade.  One of the most telling aspects of the debut LP is the clarity with which Bill Payne's piano work is captured, more so than on future albums.

Lowell George's taste for zany and unusual lyrical themes is exhibited to the full on "Strawberry Flats" and "Crack In Your Door".  Indeed, with its consistent quality and clear production values, Little Feat has a charm all its own, and tends to be unjustly overlooked when Feat's body of work is evaluated.

Sailin' Shoes reveals Little Feat forging ahead, with occasional glimpses of the musical direction in which they would soon move, especially on the tracks which closed the album.  The songwriting also was more focussed and hard-edged, and the sound overall was richer and diverse. However, this would be the last "hurrah" for the original Feat sound.

Changes were instituted for 1973's Dixie Chicken, with the recruitment of a new bass player, and the addition of a second guitarist (Paul Barrere) and a percussionist.  The groundwork was being laid for the new incarnation of Little Feat, which would take them to the end of the 1970s.

Dixie Chicken saw Little Feat encroaching into newer territory, and nurturing a slinkier, more supple and sensuous sound, owing much to funky New Orleans R&B.  The expanded group line-up was clearly created with this deviation in mind.  Despite the changes, the familiar Little Feat humour and approach were still very conspicuous, and if anything the individual proficiency of the players was given greater prominence within the revised framework.

The new sound emitted enormous self-confidence and tasteful restraint, and the track listing of Dixie Chicken features some of the undoubted high points of the band's career, including the title track, "Two Trains", "Fat Man In The Bathtub" and "Roll Um Easy".  The production is quite lush, but this ideally complements the mood of the songs.

With hindsight, it is clear that on Dixie Chicken Little Feat reached their own apogee.  The subsequent four albums contained many gems, such as "Rock n Roll Doctor", "Long Distance Love", and "All That You Dream".  They continued to be a formidable live act, and indeed if anything Lowell George's songwriting became more mature and incisive, but some of the unity and spark had receded.

The gradual eclipse of Lowell George by his bandmates coloured the course of events, with a more keyboard, jazz rock-orientated dynamic taking hold.  Well-crafted, but somehow missing that essential Feat je ne sais quoi.

With Lowell George's death in 1979, an era ended.  However, we are left with the legacy, the music of one of the period's most talented, but hard to define, groups.