Little Feat
The Best of Little Feat

(Rhino)

First Appeared in The Music Box, November 2006, Volume 13, #11

Written by John Metzger

Little Feat recorded six studio albums and one monumental live effort (Waiting for Columbus) before its guiding force Lowell George called it quits in 1979. A few months later, while in the midst of a solo tour, he died of a heart attack, leaving behind a handful of incomplete recordings that he had made with the band. Although Little Feat’s surviving members turned the tapes into Down on the Farm and compiled a series of outtakes, demos, and live cuts for Hoy Hoy!, the ensemble essentially lay dormant until its improbable resurrection on 1988’s Let It Roll. Since then, the reformulated group has toured virtually nonstop, while producing several solid, if inferior, studio endeavors as well as a truckload of archival and contemporary concert documents.

Little Feat’s latest effort The Best of Little Feat is designed specifically to bridge the entirety of the outfit’s career, but although its end goal is noble, the album’s execution is suspect. Not only are quintessential songs such as Easy to Slip, Skin It Back, and the title tunes from Sailin’ Shoes and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now missing from the set, but also notably absent are the latter day nuggets Hate to Lose Your Lovin’ and Texas Twister. Given that more than half of its material — including the intoxicating, back-roads country of Willin’; the slow, soulful blues of Roll Um Easy; and the New Orleans-imbued funk of Fat Man in the Bathtub — was culled from the brilliant outings Sailin’ Shoes, Dixie Chicken, and Waiting for Columbus, the 17-track The Best of Little Feat, nonetheless, effectively highlights the disparate, stylistic jumble that defined the band’s quirky perspective as well as its rather unique sound. ½

Of Further Interest...

Assembly of Dust - The Honest Hour

Dickey Betts - Back Where It All Begins: Live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (DVD)

Ekoostik Hookah - Where the Fields Grow Green

The Best of Little Feat is available from
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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2006 The Music Box