This Ain't No Little Feat

You may not be familiar with Little Feat, but you sure as hell should. They've been around for 40 years, during which time they've worked and shared the stage with some of music's true legends, artists running the gamut from Jimmy Buffet to Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews to Vince Gill, Brooks and Dunn and Bob Seger. Not to mention the instrumental role the legendary Frank Zappa played in the formation of the group. It was while keyboardist and co-founding member Bill Payne auditioned for the Mothers of Invention that he met Lowell George, Zappa's guitarist at the time, with whom he'd go on to form Feat. The rest is history, albeit a hazy and rather blurred one. Four decades later, the majority of the original band remains intact (though George died of a massive heart attack in '79), their catalog continues to grow, the Feat keeps testing boundaries and experimenting with sonic possibilities, and though front man Paul Barrere hinted they may have traded rock star antics and free love for Geritol and golf, they continue to hit the road religiously, loving every second of it.
Thu., June 4, 2009