EVERYTHING BELONGS IN MUSICWords with Little Feat

As their 1998 album attests, Little Feat has forever flown Under the Radar. The reason for it remains one of rock’s biggest mysteries and makes the band’s name that much more ironic. On the merits of their 1971 self-titled, debut record, the Feat was placed high atop the rock n’ roll pedestal by the world’s most respected musicians, and remains there today. The groups’s unique sound and upbeat sensibility has always been venerated by fans--over thirty years strong--yet Little Feat remains an anomaly... and it’s not just their music, either.

Beginning with Warner Brother’s lack of promotional push until their second album, Sailin’ Shoes in 1972, Little Feat barely forced its way onto the charts in 1974 with Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, the group’s fourth effort. It took five long years of road-worn blood and sweat for anyone in the industry to heed their southern-fried, boogie-funk blues (add a dash of country and a pinch of Cajun R&B, and you begin to get the flavor). And maybe that was the problem. For a nation that likes to have everything black and white and spelled out for them, Little Feat just couldn’t be pigeonholed. In fact, the band’s founder and visionary, Lowell George, downright refused to let it happen. He eschewed convention and shoved musical integrity down America’s throats as the “Summer of Love” was coming to a close.

But those days are long gone now. And sadly, so is Lowell George (1945-1979). But as George’s role began to diminish with the recording of Time Loves a Hero in 1977, it opened the door for the other members to take a shot at the leadership duties. Among them keyboardist Bill Payne, who rekindled Feat’s fire and carried the torch as they officially regrouped--albeit nine years later--in 1988. Joining Payne was the band’s original drummer, Richie Hayward, and semi-original members, guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney, and percussionist Sam Clayton. Long-time friend and collaborator Fred Tackett (guitar, mandolin, trumpet) joined shortly after, along with the sweet, whiskey-flavored soul of singer Shaun Murphy.

The ensemble topped out at seven members (almost double its original lineup). With a little help from the emerging popularity of the Internet, Little Feat was reborn. Because it had to, it was imperative. You see, bands like Little Feat just don’t die. Adding to the rock n’ roll cliché, the surviving members forbade themselves even to fade away.

He escorts me to a dressing room annex in the bowels of the club. We perch ourselves on metal chairs between all the gearboxes and equipment. He’s anxious to talk about all things Little Feat. I couldn’t help but notice that his enthusiasm is anything but narcissism. Rather, it’s pride and gratitude for the band’s second chance. He likes to talk about the good old days, what he’s learned along the way and of Little Feat reincarnate.

SC: What was the impetus for getting the band back together. Was it really just a jam session that went well?

Bill: That’s pretty much how it happened. I’ll dig a little further back if you want me to. We had tried this about a year, year-and-a-half before (1986), at a place called S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals) in Los Angeles. We had other people involved and it was a fun event to see everybody. But in terms of getting anything, musically, that we wanted to do--not that we had any particular agenda--but it was a little chaotic. We said IF we ever do this again, let’s just do it. Just the band; we’ll do it that way. Roughly a year, year-and-a-half later, there was a room being commemorated to Lowell, in part, and in part to Little Feat, at a place called the Alley in North Hollywood. That was our club and hangout for a few years, along with guys like Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. We were all in town, which was a miracle. I was still working with James Taylor at the time and I was still on the books to begin a tour with Bob Seger that summer. But after that jam--which is a lot like singing Christmas carols--you get to about half a tune going God, where are we? The thing that struck me about it, honestly, was how much I had forgotten, musically. I mean lyrics you can understand why people would forget that. But musically, it dawned me about how difficult and complicated the arrangements were and how simple we used to make them sound. And the stuff that we could remember, it was remarkable to me how much—I don’t know why it would be—but how much we sounded like Little Feat.

SC: It gave it a fresher perspective.

Bill: Yea, well six or seven years will do that. So, as we were driving back, I said to Paul (Barrere). I don’t know where we should take this, if anywhere, but if there’s any where to take it... [ As if on cue, or maybe his ears were burning, Paul Barrere enters the room, walking off his chicken dinner.] Hey Paul would you like to join us? Let’s see if he would like to talk to you, too.

Maybe it was the subconscious knowledge that his old friend was reminiscing about the band’s Phoenix-like surge back into the musical fold, and would somehow be incomplete without his perspective. Nevertheless, he preferred to stand for the interview, lest the crowd suffer the wrath of his indigestion tonight. We shared a stout laugh when Bill actually mimicked what Paul would look and sound like if that should happen.

So we said let’s see about putting this thing back together. Take it slow and sure and leave the “whether it floats or not” based on what we write. We’re up against ourselves, legacy-wise, and subjectively we’d have to make our own calls whether we thought it was any good. It worked out pretty well.

SC: It sure did, you guys are going strong again. You’re road dogs again, too. The tour Little Feat started in April and is going on into November.

Bill Payne laughed at this notion and actually barked like a dog.

Paul: Oh yea, definitely. There’s like a week off in October before we go up to Alaska and almost a week off afterwards and then we kind of wind the tour up in November. But yea, it’s pretty interesting. We’ve really been rocking.

SC: What would Lowell think about the resurgence of Little Feat?

Paul: It’s hard to say, honestly. You know, he was so not into touring, that I don’t know what he would think. I know one thing: he would be enamored with the technology today and he would probably be holed up in a place up in the canyon, surrounded with all the computers and samplers and all (laughs). I mean, because you can basically become a one-man band and just create. You never have to go anywhere.

SC: I notice you’ve gotten into doing more covers, like The Band and Phish, which is not something you had done years ago. What was the thinking on that?

Bill: Well, I’m gonna let Paul answer the meat of the question. I’d just like to say that it recently dawned on me that we have done covers before, a lot of them in fact. The first album had two songs by Willie Dixon. And we’ve always, on stage, brought in other material. But we did four, I think, on this record (Chinese Work Songs). But I know what you’re saying.

Paul: Yea, that there wasn’t a whole lot of them. Other than maybe a few obscure blues tunes. And with this last record, what happened was, Billy had envisioned me singing “Rag Mama Rag” for about a year and half, unbeknownst to me. He said: Come on, we gotta do this song. And so I dug out the brown album (The Band’s self-titled album) and, you know, started writing down lyrics. So I got it down and I nail it and I go OK, we can do this. And so we started playing it.

SC: It’s a great way to kick off the album, too. You know, what I noticed about Chinese Work Songs is that it definitely has got the Little Feat vibe. But it seems like a different band. Is that more of a function of Shaun (Murphy) and Fred (Tackett) coming in with their influences? Or is it just a different way of thinking?

Bill: It’s a different way of thinking. It was twofold. We did an interview with Levon Helm. He was talking about how Blue Suede Shoes, the Carl Perkins record, was put together. He didn’t play on it, but he was there to witness it. And basically, in a nutshell, it was played live. And we looked at each other and went (laughing) Man, maybe that’s what we oughtta be doing. Sounds like kind of a simple way to do it, but it was a really honest way to play, to just sit down and do it.

Paul: And that plays right back to another one of the covers we did, which was “It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.” Which is a tune that Shaun had brought to the table for us to do, because we do a lot of blues tunes. And quite frankly, we only ran that song once to test the recording equipment that we had brought in. We brought in this whole Pro Tools system. And, once again, you listen to the playback and go...

Bill: There it is...

Paul: It sounds great, you know (laughs)? It was nice. It had all these sweet parts to it. Later on, we added a couple things: some “oohs” and “aahs.” For the most part, it’s just live to... well, it’s not tape anymore (laughs)... the computer. But it was great. Once we had gotten into the mode of where we were gonna cover a couple songs, Richie (Hayward) brought in this song “Give Me a Stone,” which is from a record called Largo, (the Hooters’ Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian and Hooters’ producer Richard Chertoff and David Forman). But in any event, there was this song that Levon Helm sang. And it was beautiful. It was a wonderful song. So we thought we would cover that. And that was gonna be it (laughs). The Phish song, we were just doing for that Mockingbird Foundation release [Sharin’ In the Groove: Celebrating the Music of Phish]. But once again, once we had cut it, it sounded so good, you know? We made the mistake of sending it to our label. At the time, they said You gotta put this on the record. And we kind of wanted to anyway, but it worked out that we could put them on both records. So we wound up with four covers, which was definitely unusual but I think each and every one of them sounds like Little Feat.

SC: Who puts together the set list each night?

Bill: Paul pretty much does it.

Paul: Yea, mainly because I have a lot of guitar changes so I like to try to plan so that I don’t have a guy running back and forth between every song. And also, I know who sings each song and I can kind of plan it so that it isn’t too one-sided night in and night out. It’s kinda fun, especially since we played with (former Grateful Dead bassist) Phil Lesh last year. Because now, the lists are getting shorter and the sets are getting longer.

Bill: That’s what I was gonna say about that record, by the way, when I said it was a two-fold answer to why we did what we did. Phil Lesh reintroduced us to the idea of jamming, but also to the idea of keeping an open mind about what you play. So we just threw the rule book out the window and said Let’s start again.

SC: Phil had a lot to do with that.

Bill: Yea, I mean, I knew a little bit about the Grateful Dead’s music. I used to see them in 1967 up at the Fillmore and that kind of feel. But you know, over the years I had heard references to Little Feat and the Grateful Dead. I wasn’t sure what people were talking about. But when I heard, and we played their music, it kind of dawned on me that the music didn’t sound the same, but it sounded effortless. But when you try and play it, it’s like all over the map (laughs). I thought, Well, we certainly have that in common, because I had heard that from more than one musician. You know, It sounds like you guys are rolling off a log until you start to play it. It’s like, man, where’s the balance?

SC: Bill, I read a quote from you that said, “I have often said that the act of creativity is like sneaking up on a glass of water to get a drink.” Can you explain that?

Bill: It’s trying to trick yourself into getting out of your own body, so you can turn off your editing devices long enough to write. You know it as a writer. You sit there and you try to start a piece. It’s OK if you’ve got an idea of what you want to do, but it’s like, let me cook up a subject matter. Then the choice factor gives you pause. With songwriting, sometimes it’s the same way. There’s so much in our heads, we’re influenced by so many things, that it sometimes negates everything that you would want to do because you don’t have a starting point. So the sneaking up on a glass of water to get a drink is Yea, I’m thirsty but I don’t know quite how to get to it. But you just gotta go out there and drink it, goddamnit. Same thing with writing, just put it down on the page and maybe a few lines later, or a couple pages later, you’ll eventually just stumble across something. But it’s truly difficult for people to grasp the idea of having an improvisational way of thinking which will allow you, then, to think in concrete terms.

SC: People like things spelled out for them. I think part of the reason that Little Feat wasn’t on the charts was that you couldn’t be pigeonholed. You’re sound was so unique and so different.

Paul: Well, radio is a very strange animal anyway. We’ve always had problems with radio. Whether it’s because we are so eclectic or we do sound so different or whether it’s just their perception of us being so eclectic and so different. We had a situation when we made the record for Morgan Creek (Shake Me Up, 1991). We cut a song called “Things Happen.” We did it dead straight on, like a Stax/Volt. We had the Memphis Horns come in and play and made a really cool single. We had people go out and play it for programmers, don’t tell ‘em who it is, you know, and go What do you think? And they’d go “Oh, it’s really great, who is it?” It’s Little Feat. “Oh, we can’t play that.” (Laughs)

SC: Just a stigma?

Paul: Yea, and you go Why? You know (laughs again), it just plain doesn’t make sense to me but that’s the nature of the beast. And quite frankly the Grateful Dead never had a whole lot of success with radio, Frank Zappa never had a whole lot of success with radio, and yet, they’re two examples of whose music has lasted a lot longer than, say, Mott the Hoople. (Round of laughter). I don’t know why I quote Mott the Hoople, other than I like that term.

SC: You guys have been at it for 30 years. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in music, and particularly the improvisational scene?

Bill: Well, judging from the club tonight, disco’s still viable. (Another round of laughter) But look, trends come and go. I think the best news is that people are back to playing real music. These guys like String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, Ekoostik Hookah...

Paul: A friend of ours told us last night that Widespread Panic made the top ten in Pollstar this week. That’s amazing! It’s great stuff.

Bill: It’s just people playing music, man. And boy, I salute it a hundred percent.

Paul: And you know quite frankly, one of the biggest draws out there is Dave Matthews Band. I mean he plays some... they’re just a great band of musicians. So you know, there’s a lot of real good stuff going on out there. And I think it’s been that way ever since the music business has become a business. You just gotta dig your way through the hype and find the real stuff.

SC: Well, your fans are certainly legendary. Coming out in hurricane weather to see you, right?

Paul: They’re what keep us going. Thank goodness for the Internet and the Grassroots organization [FeatNet] because it’s really been a big boost for us and it’s also kind of reconnected us with the whole younger generation of jam band scene. And I think we’re definitely reaping some rewards from that. As well as the fact that Billy and I worked with Phil for seven weeks last summer and got in front of a lot of those folks. Now they’re coming out to see Little Feat. The fans are diehards. Did you hear last night that there were some folks from Germany, there were folks that came up from Florida, folks that flew out from Seattle? You know, they plan trips to just see Little Feat. I think that’s pretty cool. (Laughs)

SC: The Grassroots thing. It seems that it’s sort of taken on another element; that of community service. It has sort of become an animal unto itself.

Bill: I think it was going to. It was going that way. I started a letter writing campaign a few years ago to get it going [FeatNet]. But the ultimate deal is for Grassroots to run itself. And the by-product of starting it at all is that we’ve made a ton of friends in the process. I mean good friends, which is wonderful. Paul was approached by some people from ALS (Lou Gherig’s Disease) a while back, about a year ago. Prior to that, we had talked about doing some community service. The Grassroots people had gotten into, literally, the middle of trying to do community service. We had backed off of that a little bit because of the political nature of some of these things. But when the ALS people approached us—this is what took Neon Park’s life (artist for all of Little Feat’s album covers)—we thought, My gosh, this is something we could back and would be a good thing to be involved in. So we’re doing more and more with that organization.

SC: Let’s talk about the tour. You guys are going from the big blues festivals to the smaller clubs, like here at B.B. King’s. Do you have a preference between the two?

Bill: The small venues can be a lot of fun. I’m not as enamored of some of the business practices of places that have a real tight scene going on. They’re good people that run these things. But it’s so much like a business that I think it puts a lot of people off, too. I think where our real fans would gravitate would be to those festivals, quite honestly. And if we were strictly relying on B.B. King's Blues Club in New York I think we’d be in a good amount of trouble in the next few years. We’re very grateful to be playing here now, but I think we have to move beyond this. And I think we will.

SC: What about doing a Little Feat Festival with other bands joining you?

Bill: We’re going to.

Paul: Yea, as a matter of fact they’re scoping out sites and promoters and all that stuff right now.

Bill: We’ll have invitees. I mean sitting in with Dark Star Orchestra the other night was cool. Being able to play with Leftover Salmon, String Cheese, ekoostik hookah is going to join us and we’re going to play at one of their festivals. This is a great, great thing going on nowadays. It certainly plays to Little Feat in the best sense of the word because we’ve always been known as a musician’s musicians band. So, other than whatever hole we want to put in the ship we can keep it going.

SC: What are the plans for the future? Are you getting back into the studio?

Paul: Eventually. We’re blocking out some time to do some writing towards the end of the year. But we’re starting Hot Tomato Records.

SC: You guys will be pretty much totally self-contained then. Is that the plan?

Paul: Yea, we have a plan to release a 3-CD live set that will encompass live stuff from the Lowell era, the Craig (Fuller) era and mostly from what we’re doing now. That’s going to take a little bit of planning to get under way, but I’d like to see that come around about April of next year, about the same time that Rhino wants to re-release Waiting for Columbus; in the wake of their promotional schemes (laughs).

SC: Will Columbus have all the tracks on it then, like “Don’t Bogart that Joint” and “A Apolitical Blues?”

Paul: And more. There were about six or seven cuts that were actually mixed for Waiting for Columbus that didn’t even get on the vinyl.

SC: With this news of Hot Tomato Records, are you going to dig back even further--you know, a lot of bands like the Doors, the Dead, Phish-- they’re digging back into their old catalog of live shows from years ago and just releasing them and putting them out there.

Paul: That could be a part of this little scheme. A lot of that stuff, going way back, we’ll have to deal with Warner Brothers on, some of the years with Lowell and some of those years with Craig. There are certainly multi-track recordings of a lot of live shows from back in those days. There’s also a lot of two-track and DAT recordings and cassette recordings of shows. We can put the cassettes through processing and clean them up, I think that could be pretty interesting. You know, shows from Richard’s Club in Atlanta, 1972-73. Pretty wacky stuff.

SC: One question before I leave. In a natural nod to Frank Zappa, does humor belong in music? Little Feat’s always had a great sense of humor.

Bill: Ask Mel Brooks I guess.

Paul: I think everything belongs in music. Music’s an art form. It should have both sides of that theatrical mask: comedy and tragedy.

Bill: I think Little Feat’s had a fair amount of both. That’s life, you know.

Interview by Scott Caffrey
JamBase | New York
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