Will ever-changing Little Feat sound the same when band returns to Lexington? Yes and no.
Bill Payne set about answering the question before it was even asked. As the last founding member of Little Feat standing, the keyboardist has been answering it for decades, deflecting naysayers who felt the immensely influential Southern California roots, soul, jazz, neo-country and all-around rock ‘n’ roll band was done in after its members passed on.
He faced it in 1987, when Little Feat regrouped following an extended split triggered by the 1979 heart attack death of its best-known stylistic architect — guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Lowell George. The cries came again when two more of the Feat faithful, drummer Richie Hayward and co-guitarist/vocalist Paul Barrere, lost battles with liver cancer in 2010 and 2019, respectively.
Now here we are in 2022 with the latest edition of Little Feat spending much of the year on the road celebrating the 45th anniversary of its platinum-selling concert album “Waiting for Columbus.”
The question looms large again: Is Little Feat really still Little Feat without three of the six members responsible for giving “Waiting for Columbus” much of its distinction and organic, soulful drive?
“Look at these various incarnations of Little Feat,” Payne said. “You think, ‘Well, how do you call it Little Feat if you don’t have Richie or Lowell or Paul Barrere or anybody, really?’ And it’s one of those things. For me, I go back to 1966. Now, this is subjective. I went to hear The Yardbirds (the British band known for its succession of vanguard guitarists) up in Pismo Beach, California at the Rose Garden. We went up there to hear Jeff Beck, my friends and I. Well, Jeff Beck wasn’t playing that night. We were going, ‘Oh no, what happened?’ Then we heard the guy who was playing guitar instead and went, ‘Well, wait. Who’s this?’ It was Jimmy Page (who would go on to form Led Zeppelin.) Know what I mean?
“I just thought. ‘Alright. There a lot of people who have heard Lowell. They’re going to miss Lowell. They will think we’re not Little Feat without Lowell. But I know for a fact, if you’ve got something in there that really resonates and honors that guy and his legacy and brings more people who are inquisitive enough to really find out who Lowell was, it’s kind of the whole win-win thing. It benefits everyone if something hits in a way where you can sit there and go, ‘Boy, I know it doesn’t have this person or that person, but it sure sounds like Little Feat.’
“It’s built on songs and musicianship. And that’s what makes it Little Feat. A lot of people have great songs and they’ve got guys that can play, but maybe they don’t let them play. But our thing has always been based on both — a great band, or great bands in our case, and letting people play. If they hit the wall and collapse, well, they dust themselves off, get back up again and get their radar working.”
Little Feat today
The current Little Feat lineup features four mainstay members: Payne (who formed the band with George in 1969), bass guitarist Kenny Gradney, percussionist Sam Clayton and guitarist Fred Tackett. Gradney and Clayton have been on board since the 1972 recording sessions for Little Feat’s third album, the career-defining, Southern fried “Dixie Chicken.” Tackett’s ties to the band reach just as far, although he didn’t become a full-time member until 1987, filling part of the guitar void left by George.
Rounding out the roster are guitarist Scott Sharrard (guitarist for Gregg Allman during his final tours and recordings) and drummer Tony Leone (who played Lexington numerous times with the Americana ensemble Ollabelle.)
“Scott is in an interesting position because he’s morphing both Lowell and Paul,” Payne said. “Scott has two paradigms to choose from to add to his vocabulary. His rhythm playing is just pristine. He’s got the funky thing down, which is where Paul had it, but he is also of the age where he grew up listening to our music, so he’s like a custodian of this work we’ve put forward.
“The same is true of Tony. He has studied Richie since he was 12 years old. He’s really showing his chops and his knowledge of how to play drums and has adopted a freedom that Richie certainly had. I think the main difference between the two guys is that part of Richie’s style was ... well, when he was playing, he would almost feel like he was going to go off the tracks and over the cliff. I don’t feel that way about Tony. He’s rock solid.”
While honoring the true sound of Little Feat is no small feat, the current lineup is focusing on the very heart of its critical and commercial heyday by playing “Waiting for Columbus” in its entirety on a tour that brings the band back to Lexington for the first time in 12 years for an Oct. 7 show at the Opera House.
‘Waiting for Columbus’ show
Appreciating “Waiting for Columbus,” however, means showing equal favor for the six studio albums that preceded it. Songs from each one make-up the repertoire of what was originally a double album of live recordings. Helping with the “Columbus” celebration this year is a new eight-disc edition of the album that augments a remastered version of the original record with three full-length concert sets from the same 1977 tour. Little Feat played Lexington on that run, performing at the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum. None of that show was included on the “Columbus” recordings.
“We’re taking the approach of a jazz band on our tour, like Miles Davis or (John) Coltrane, where things evolve. It could be something as slight as tempos that might shift over a period of time. It could be the arrangement itself. Generally, we’re not going to do something that will cause people to say, ‘Gee, I don’t recognize the song,’ but we’re also not replicating ‘Waiting for Columbus’ in that regard.
“Here’s another way to put it. Somebody asked me, ‘How do you keep your music fresh? How do you do that with a song like ‘Dixie Chicken,’ which you’ve played for 50 years?’ I answer by saying, ‘Well, what do you do when you sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to somebody? You sing it from the heart, okay?’ That’s what we do.”
Little Feat and Miko Marks
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 7
Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.
Tickets: $64.50-$109.50 through ticketmaster.com
