Showing posts with label Lowell George. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lowell George. Show all posts

Wednesday 2 June 2021

Dixie Chicken


Today I have been listening to a lot of music , part of which was on a four mile walk that included posting a CD from a Discogs order to Connecticut in the USA, and decided to play a best of Little Feat , “As Time Goes By”. By the way this post was rejected for an unspecified reason by Vocal.


The first song on the album is “Dixie Chicken” , also the title track of their third album written by Lowell George and Fred Martin. The song itself is just very good but for me the piano lines just know over the perfection line by some way. They almost don’t go with the song but enhance it so much that Bill Payne’s lines just make you want to play it again , although a second Little Feat song always adds to the feast , and a whole album just really is perfect.


Little feat were probably one of the first multi ethnic bands , although to could also cite Santana and The Mothers of Invention, with Sam Clayton an integral part of the band.


Their songs are usually complex but you can sing along with them and all of Lowell George’s guitar work was planned down to the note. I always improvise and therefore often can’t repeat what I actually played but Lowell George was a nailed on musician.


After “Dixie Chicken” came “Willin’” a sparse acoustic piece from their first album but this gets better every time you hear it and Lowell George’s guitar work is wonderful.


Lowell George was always Little Feat’s main man and I learned about him from the documentary on Amazon Prime “Feats First” about his short life , and his lasting musical legacy , six Little Feat studio albums , one live album and one solo album.


The other thing is Little Feat were never a one man band Bill Payne and Paul Barrere were also mainstays and contributed songs , licks and vocals to the overall sound.


I have recently been listening to all their albums while I work and at no point do I ever wnat to skip a song, and even though “As Time Goes By” is a compilation , you could probably put any dozen Little Feat songs together and it would be an absolutely great listen. If you go to their website (they are still going) there is a jukebox on their site to whet your appetite.


Although they didn't move a great deal of music early on they are now regarded as a truly great rock band and it is almost impossible to pigeonhole them , yes they are very unmistakably American, possibly in a similar univers to The Band , they influenced a lot who came after , but their music still sounds fresh and contemporary.


I often hate people who say that music was only good when whatever, I know people who’s musical diet is British Rock between 1974-6 , or eighties power ballads or stuff like Heart or Smooth radio, but basically 95% is always rubbish and it’s up to us to find that 5% good stuff. Little Feat and a veritable gold seam and all their stuff is worth listening two , much like The Band. 


I am unaware of a contemporary equivalent but I am sure another will emerge and knock us off our feet so to speak.


So I suggest to listen to “Dixie Chicken” , thanks to YouTube it’s free to listen to , though you may have an advert to navigate , and if you like that I suggest to invest in some of their LPs, you will not be disappointed and please don’t use Spotify and it does not support artists. Buy music from the artist direct if you can , otherwise see if they have  a Bandcamp site.


Sunday 25 April 2021

Sleep , Creativity and Little Feat

 I have a bit of a headache , it’s half an hour after midnight , so I’m just into Sunday morning but I feel that I need to write something. I sort of feel if I don;t write then I lose something and I can always lie in tomorrow, I don’t have to get up for work until Monday.


Writing articles for Vocal has changed the way I do my writing. I used to just write to my blog and wasn’t too bothered on how much I was writing. I mainly wanted to record stuff that I wanted to remember and may , one day , to go back to.Then I started on Vocal and realised I wanted to share my writing on my blog  (Sevendaysin.co.uk) as well as on Vocal , although the platforms require slightly different formatting.


Basically I need a basic text format which I can then paste into the platform I am posting on and then add the required enhancements in links and video additions , to give the reader a fuller experience, with sound and vision.


Publication on Vocal is fairly quick , and the categorise it so it is in the correct area for Vocal and external readers. My own blog is instantly published because I fully control it , but it is relatively self contained.


I have learned how to fully enhance the Vocal posts which I think will be very good going forward and I have already posted seven times and this will be my eighth. So much for me not posting as much this year as I have done previously. Mt first Vocal post was on the 17th of April and it;s now the 25th of April  so that is one a day.


I did try actually using my phone (a Google Pixel 2XL) to record my voice and convert to text to post but that did require a hell of a lot of editing , but is great for capturing ideas. So I am just using that fairly sparingly.


This week my music listening has involved a couple of the Rhino original album series featuring the first five albums from Little Feat and Th eIncredible String Band. These album set retail at about £12 for five albums in replica album sleeves (or did when they were released) and are wonderful to listen to in my CD player while I work.


The Little Feat box is a stunning listen and there is not skipping of songs, although the albums are quite short. I then noticed an Amazon Documentary on Lowell George which affirmed everything I thought about Little Feat, but expanded my knowledge including George’s sting with The Standells and Frank Zappa, and well as displaying and explaining his excellent slide guitar technique which he used a spark plug puller rather than a glass bottleneck for.


The music speaks for itself and sounds as fresh today as when it first came out. 


Good music never dates.


I followed this up with five Incredible String Band albums culminating in “Wee Tam” and ”The Big Huge” . Their sound is an otherworldly folk which would not have sounded out of place in “The Wicker Man”. Robin Williamson and Mike Heron are very special talents and if you surrender yourself to their music you will go on some amazing mental excursions. 


The great thing about having these album sets it that I can listen to them almost at will.


They are just a few of many that I have but they are definitely worth time and effort to track down , listen to and enjoy.


I can now include videos and album links for you to follow and discover more about these absolutely amazing bands.

Also I do find it amazing that word processing software can point out when you have made grammatical errors. We are always getting more help when we want to be creative.


It is now one o’clock so time to publish