That Little Feat has made a 17th album is more than a minor miracle. That the release from the nearly 60-year operation is brimming with vitality and gaining notice from the persnickety critics at the New York Times and Rolling Stone might defy explanation.
The “legacy act” tag often confines artists to focus on their back catalog, but Little Feat guitarist and vocalist Fred Tackett explains there are artistic and practical reasons to put out new material.
“There’s five songwriters in the band, so we’re all wanting to get a physical recording of our songs. Little Feat is the way to do that,” he says. “And for touring implications, if you want to go play in Europe or Japan, the promoters want you to have a product. They don’t want you to just show up and play. They want you to have something that you’re actually promoting.”
“Strike Up the Band” is the group’s second album, and first one of original songs, since guitarist and vocalist Scott Sharrard replaced founding member Paul Barrere, who died in 2019. The album was made in the spirit of collaboration, with most in the band — which also includes founding member Bill Payne (keyboards and vocals), Kenny Gradney (bass), Sam Clayton (percussion and vocals) and Tony Leone (drums and vocals) — contributing material.
The newest members, Sharrard and Leone, “are kicking us in our butt every day and it’s just very inspiring to have them in the group now,” Tackett says. Sharrard’s new song “Midnight Flight” “is funky as a goat, man,” he says, and was pleased to co-write “Too High to Cut My Hair” with Sharrard, a lifelong Little Feat fanatic and former collaborator with Gregg Allman, whom he says “fit in instantly.”
“Billy Payne, when Scotty first joined the band, called me and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you collaborate and write a song with Scott? You know, get him into this thing.’ So I called Scott, and I just said, ‘Hey, you’re too high to cut my hair. That’s the title of this tune.’ He was in New York, and I was in L.A., and we were trading tapes back and forth. I had one kind of groove to play on it. And then he sent another kind of groove, and we were trading back and forth. Levon Helm told me that’s what they did each time The Band made up a different arrangement for a tune, and then they would record them all and pick out the one they liked the best.”
The collaborations extended beyond the band lineup, with Molly Tuttle, Larkin Poe, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams appearing as guests. Payne co-wrote “Bluegrass Pines” with Robert Hunter, the late Grateful Dead lyricist.
The “Strike Up the Band” tour is winding through the Midwest, then the West Coast and Pacific Northwest, before Little Feat hooks up with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for a few “Dirty Feat” date. They’ll then open a string of shows for old friends the Tedeschi Trucks Band and host their own Feat Fest at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1.
“We’re going to be playing two or three of the new songs on the tour, but we’re going to be playing the oldies but goodies as well,” Tackett says. “People love to hear ‘Fat Man in the Bathtub,’ and you know, ‘Spanish Moon,’ through Phish and Gov’t Mule and different people, has now become more popular with the younger kids than even ‘Dixie Chicken.’ Wow. ‘Chicken’ was the song. Now, all the kids come in and they all know ‘Spanish Moon.'”
Nearly 60 years after forming, and more than 45 since the death of frontman Lowell George, Little Feat has defied the odds through a sheer will to continue.
“I think it’s all the desire of everybody else in the band to play together, you know?” says Tackett, who joined the group in 1988 and is noted for his session and live work with Bob Dylan, Glen Campbell and a host of other luminaries. “And we don’t ever want to quit. So, you know, when someone dies or leaves, everybody just wants to keep playing. We just look for who’s going to be the new guy.”
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