Little Feat rocks on with ‘Strike Up the Band’

Fred Tackett met Lowell George in the s Los Angeles music scene in the majority s Los Angeles music scene way I moved to Los Angeles and met this girl who has now been my wife for -some years and she lived next door to Lowell Tackett described the Boston Herald She brought him over to songwriter Jimmy Webb s house to play sitar I went into the living room and Lowell was on the floor dressed in white playing the sitar Tackett already an ace guitarist and budding session musician communicated George that they could jam on psychedelic grooves with the sitar George advised him he only played sacred Indian music I disclosed Oh ok that s cool Tackett disclosed Then two weeks later he was in the Standells doing Dirty Water George didn t stay long in the Standells Right as the s passed into the s George founded Little Feat a band with no psychedelic sitar but plenty of swamp and Southern rock jazz and honky tonk chops Tackett didn t officially join the band until nearly a decade after George s death But Tackett was the group s utility infielder in the early years lending Little Feat songs guitar parts and even several mandolin and trumpet work in the studio Tackett is now one of the band s elder statesmen along with keyboardist Bill Payne percussionist Sam Clayton and bassist Kenny Gradney as Little Feat releases new album Strike Up The Band and hits the road Little Feat plays Medford s Chevalier Theater May Strike Up the Band comes out four days later It was ridiculous how multiple tunes we came into the studio with we all had three or four different tunes each and were all fighting to get our songs on the record as we played them for Vance Powell the producer Tackett announced One of Tackett s songs that battled through was Too High To Cut My Hair a groovy New Orleans inspired tune born out of well Tackett telling his wife she was too high to give him a trim while at NoLa s Jazzfest The album s lead single and co-written by new member Scott Sharrard the song represents how seamlessly Sharrard has blended into Little Feat s gumbo We didn t know anything about Scott Tackett noted of the guitarist who was hired to fill in at the end of a tour But Scott had studied Little Feat since he was years old The very first show his parents took him to was when he was on the Let It Roll tour in the late s Allman Brothers and Little Feat were his two bands and he worked with Gregg Allman for years and so the chemistry with him was instantaneous That fill-in gig came at a sad but key time Paul Barr re who formed the artistic center of the band with George and Payne in the s had been too sick with cancer to tour in Sub and band-pal Larry Campbell had played majority of of the shows but had a conflict that kept him from finishing the tour Sharrard was recommended and played his first show with the band the night they all determined out Barr re had died Scott walked in played the show did an amazing job and we all just looked at each other and declared OK Tackett reported As I mentioned it was just instantaneous Little Feat has taken its licks It has survived the deaths of members and long breaks that seemed like they could spell the end of the band But with Sharrard in place and Strike Up the Band a rip roaring good time Little Feat sounds like it could be back in the s when it blended a dozen genres seemingly everything but psychedelic sitar For tickets and details visit littlefeat net