
Little Feat
Little Feat can be booked through this site. Little Feat entertainment booking site. Little Feat
is available for public concerts and events. Little Feat can be booked for
private events and Little Feat can be booked for corporate events and
meetings through this Little Feat booking page.
Unlike most middle agents that would mark
up the performance or appearance fee for Little Feat, we act as YOUR agent in
securing Little Feat at the best possible price. We go over the rider for
Little Feat and work directly with Little Feat or the responsible agent for
Little Feat to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent,
representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
the acquisition of Little Feat for international dates and newer promoters
providing you meet professional requirements.
Little Feat Biography
Though they had all the trappings of a Southern-fried blues
band, Little Feat were hardly conventional. Led by songwriter/guitarist
Lowell George, Little Feat were a wildly eclectic band, bringing
together strains of blues, R&B, country, and rock & roll. The
bandmembers were exceptionally gifted technically and their polished
professionalism sat well with the slick sounds coming out of southern
California during the '70s. However, Little Feat were hardly slick --
they had a surreal sensibility, as evidenced by George's idiosyncratic
songwriting, which helped the band earn a cult following among critics
and musicians. Though the band earned some success on album-oriented
radio, the group was derailed after George's death in 1979. Little Feat
re-formed in the late '80s, and while they were playing as well as
ever, they lacked the skewed sensibility that made them cult favorites.
Nevertheless, their albums and tours were successful, especially among
American blues-rock fans.
However, Little Feat wasn't conceived as a straight-ahead blues-rock
group. Its founding members, Lowell George (vocals, guitar, slide
guitar) and Roy Estrada (bass), were veterans of Frank Zappa's Mothers
of Invention. George had a long musical career before joining the
Mothers. As a child, he and his brother Hampton performed a harmonica
duet on television's Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. During high
school, he learned how to play flute, which led to him appearing as an
oboist and baritone saxophonist on several Frank Sinatra recording
sessions. He formed the folk-rock group the Factory with drummer
Richard Hayward in 1965. Before disbanding, the Factory made some
recordings for Uni Records, but the tapes sat unreleased until the
1990s. Following the group's demise, George joined the Mothers of
Invention, where he met Estrada. Zappa convinced George to form his own
band after hearing Willin', but the guitarist was reluctant to begin
a band until he participated in a brief Standells reunion.
George and Estrada formed Little Feat in 1969 with Hayward and
keyboardist Billy Payne. Neither its eponymous first album in 1971 nor
1972's Sailin' Shoes were commercial successes, despite strong reviews.
As a result, the group temporarily disbanded, with Estrada leaving
music to become a computer programmer. When the group reconvened later
in 1972, he was replaced by New Orleans musician Kenny Gradney. In its
second incarnation, Little Feat also featured guitarist Paul Barrére
and percussionist Sam Clayton, who gave the music a funkier feeling, as
demonstrated by 1973's Dixie Chicken. The band toured heavily behind
the record, building a strong following in the South and on the East
Coast. Nevertheless, the group remained centered in Los Angeles, since
the members did a lot of session work on the side.
Though the band was earning a cult following, several members of the
group were growing frustrated by George's erratic behavior and
increasing drug use. Following 1974's Feats Don't Fail Me Now, Barrére
and Payne became the band's primary songwriters and they were primarily
responsible for the jazzy fusions of 1975's The Last Record Album.
Little Feat continued in that direction on Time Loves a Hero (1977),
the double-live album Waiting for Columbus (1978), and Down on the Farm
(1979). Frustrated with the band's increasingly improvisational and
jazzy nature, George recorded a solo album, Thanks I'll Eat It Here,
which was released in 1979. Following its release, George announced
that Little Feat had broken up, and he embarked on a solo tour. Partway
through the tour, he died of an apparent heart attack. Down on the Farm
was released after his death, as was the rarities collection Hoy-Hoy!
(1981).
After spending seven years as sidemen, Payne, Barrére, Hayward,
Gradney, and Clayton re-formed Little Feat in 1988, adding
vocalist/guitarist Craig Fuller and guitarist Fred Tackett. The heavily
anticipated Let It Roll was released in 1988 to mixed reviews, but it
went gold. Each of the group's subsequent reunion albums --
Representing the Mambo (1989), Shake Me Up (1991), and Ain't Had Enough
Fun (1995) -- sold progressively less, but the band remained a popular
concert attraction. On the latter album, the band traded the strongly
Lowell George-esque voice of Fuller for female singer Shaun Murphy;
this lineup went on to release Under the Radar in 1998 and Chinese Work
Songs in 2000. Numerous compilations and live recordings peppered the
next few years, followed by 2003's Kickin' It at the Barn, the group's
first album for their own indie label, Hot Tomato Records. Rocky
Mountain Jam arrived in early 2007. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide
Written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine