Jazz Articles

Little Feat: Rooster Rag

by C. Michael Bailey
September 1, 2012

Too often lumped in with jam bands like Phish, String Cheese Incident or Widespread Panic, Little Feat more properly belongs with The Allman Brothers Band, which developed a greater popularity early on before settling in for largely improvisatory concerts based on its own band book and covers. Little Feat diverge from the ABB in that it has released two studio albums of new material, 2003's Kickin' it At the Barn (Hot Tomato) and the present Rooster Rag, to the Brothers' ...

Little Feat: Barnstormin

by C. Michael Bailey
May 7, 2006

Little Feat whet our appetite with the release of Barnstormin' Live, Volume One last year. A second volume has just been released and the two have been packaged together. Since the band's reformation in 1988, it has released numerous live recordings, including the archival releases Raw Tomatoes, Volume 1 & Ripe Tomatoes, Volume 1 and three contemporary live recordings, High Wire Act Live in St. Louis, Down Upon the Suwannee River and Live at Rams Head. These recent live recordings ...

Little Feat: Barnstormin

by C. Michael Bailey
June 7, 2005

Little Feat remains one of the more enduring bands to have emerged out of the 1970s. This endurance is manifest in both the group's longevity and continually fresh creativity. Since leaving the major label realm and starting Hot Tomato Records, the band has released numerous archival (Raw Tomatoes, Volume 1 & Ripe Tomatoes, Volume 1) and contemporary recordings (High Wire Act Live in St. Louis, Kickin' It at the Barn, Down Upon the Suwannee River, and Live at Rams Head) ...

Little Feat: Highwire Act Live in St. Louis 2003

by C. Michael Bailey
May 4, 2004

Little Feat Highwire Act Live in St. Louis 2003 Hot Tomato 2004

Little Feat and the Allman Brothers Band have much in common. Both bands incurred losses of integral personnel (Lowell George in the case of Little Feat and Duane Allman in the case of the Allman Brothers Band). Both bands realized a fallow, sub-productive period following these losses. And both bands emerged from the 20th Century with a second wind that can be ...

Little Feat: Kickin' It at the Barn

by C. Michael Bailey
October 16, 2003

Kickin' It at the Barn is Little Feat's first studio album since 2000?s Chinese Work Songs. Its release and promotion coincided with the 2003 full acoustic tour and appropriately so. The disc is replete with acoustic numbers and represents quite a departure from recent recordings. Thus,Children, this is not your parents' Little Feat. This is a band that has moved on, its players digging deeper into their own muse, their creativity expanding ...

Little Feat: Down Upon the Suwannee River

by C. Michael Bailey
September 25, 2003

Little Feat follows up their acoustic live album ...At Rams Head with this electric live recording, Down Upon the Suwannee River. The new live recording was captured on 36 tracks out in the woods of Suwannee, Florida before an appreciative crowd. Post-Lowell George live Little Feat has been characterized by wall-of-sound mixing that takes advantage of the sheer power as a live band Little Feat is able to express. This power is evident on Live From Neon Park, but was ...

Fred Tackett: In A Town Like This

by C. Michael Bailey
July 25, 2003

Little Feat guitarist Fred Tackett hails from Arkansas. That fact is written in every word he sings and plays on his solo release, In A Town Like This. In a musical coleslaw that combines equal parts blues, country, hillbilly, eastern, and western music, Mr. Tackett paints his soundscape with broad autumnal strokes that recalls Arkansas in August. The title cut begins with a Middle Eastern sound that disappears into a shuffling blues mirage. Accompanied by double bassist Domenic Genova and ...

Little Feat: An Acoustic Evening with Little Feat Live at the Rams Head

by C. Michael Bailey
November 19, 2002

Barefoot...

Live At the Rams Head is Little Feat’s Unplugged. Culled from shows held at the famed Annapolis Maryland nightspot between June 19th and the 22nd before an intimate crowd of about 200, Rams Head is a slanted look at the band’s thirty-year repertoire. Gratefully, I noted several stock songs not present. "Dixie Chicken," "Fat Man In the Bath Tub," and "Sailing Shoes," as well as "Apolitical Blues" and "Two Trains" are all missing in action. That is fine. With ...

Little Feat: Raw Tomatos, Volume 1 & Ripe Tomatos, Volume 1

by C. Michael Bailey
September 13, 2002

It Has Been a Good Century for Little Feat

Since the turn of the new century, record stores have been treated to a variety of previously unreleased live Little Feat. This music has taken the form of the quasi-bootleg Pilot release, Late Night Truck Stop , the newly rejuvenated Waiting for Columbus (in this humble critics mind, the greatest Rock Live Recording ever), and the Rhino Box Set Hotcakes and Outtakes . All of these collections sport previously unreleased live ...