Little Feat: Rooster Rag
CD402
Rounder records 2012
Little Feat: Rooster Rag
The world is a better place with Little Feat in it. Far from being some nostalgia act riding the coattails of its long departed co-founder/leader Lowell George (who died in 1979), the band has continued to make cool, vital music with nearly all the members of its classic lineup—guitarist Paul Barrere, keyboardist Bill Payne, bassist Kenny Gradney, and percussionist Sam Clayton, along with Lowell-era multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Fred Tackett—plus new drummer Gabe Ford, the very able replacement for original Feat skinsman Richie Hayward, who died two years ago. Since their 1987 post-Lowell revival, they’ve made a number of fine albums—my favorites are Let It Roll (1988), Ain’t Had Enough Fun (1995) and Kickin’ it at the Barn (2003), all of which I heartily recommend. And they’ve remained one of the best live bands out there, dispensing a rootsy blend of rock, funk, blues, country and New Orleans spice that adds up to that unmistakable Little Feat sound.
Their excellent new disc, Rooster Rag, is Little Feat’s first studio album of new material in nine years, and the reason we’re writing about it on a Grateful Dead web site is that four of the 12 songs were co-written by Robert Hunter and Feat keyboard wizard Bill Payne. (The duo have collaborated on six others that didn’t make this album, but may turn up down the line.) The four tunes are the bouncy title cut, the country barndance number “Salome,” an ode to car culture called “Rag Top Down,” and the driving “Way Down Under,” which may be the most classically “Hunter-esque” of the lot. The other songs on the album also showcase Little Feat at their best, particularly a pair of unusual Fred Tackett tunes—“Tattooed Girl” and the mysterious, Los Lobos-ish “A Church Falling Down”—and Barrere’s nicely rendered version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Candyman Blues.” Throughout there’s a beautiful and imaginative layering of acoustic and electric textures. It’s no secret that there’s always been a huge overlap of Dead Heads and Feat fans. The two bands, though not that similar musically, have many shared roots, a commitment to adventurous playing and unique, slightly twisted worldviews. They were always idiosyncratic fellow travelers. There have been direct connections, too. Lowell George co-produced the Dead’s Shakedown Street album in 1978.
A decade later, Little Feat opened a pair of much-loved Dead shows in Oxford, Maine (7/2-3/88) and at Autzen Stadium in Eugene on 6/24/90. Bill Payne and Paul Barrere played on and off as part of Phil Lesh & Friends between the fall of ’99 and the summer of 2000. Little Feat has played “Tennessee Jed” many times since 2001, “I Know You Rider” less often, and occasionally teased “Dark Star” and “Scarlet Begonias” during their medleys. And Little Feat’s current manager is former Grateful Dead manager Cameron Sears. I spoke with Bill Payne on the phone from his rural Montana home, which sits on 20 acres, has a river running through it and is just 22 miles from Yellowstone National Park. I wish I had a high-quality audio version of the interview, because he often punctuated his comments by stepping over to a piano and demonstrating some musical point. Besides touring incessantly with Little Feat, Payne also has a solo show that combines music, stories and his top-notch photography—so keep an eye out for that! He has had an amazing career playing keys with dozens of artists outside of Little Feat, including Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, J.J. Cale; the list goes on forever. ...
- Blair Jackson
Track list:
1. Candyman
Blues (Mississippi John Hurt)
2. Rooster Rag (Robert Hunter/Bill Payne)
3. Church Falling Down (Fred Tackett)
4. Salome (Robert Hunter/Bill Payne)
5. One Breath at a Time (Fred Tackett)
6. Just a Fever (Paul Barrere/Stephen Bruton)
7. Rag Top Down (Robert Hunter/Bill Payne)
8. Way Down Under (Robert Hunter/Bill Payne)
9. Jamaica Will Break Your Heart (Fred Tackett)
10. Tattooed Girl (Fred Tackett)
11. The Blues Keep Coming (Bill Payne/Gabe Ford)
12. Mellow Down Easy (Willie Dixon)