Having had the pleasure of working with Little Feat and seeing them perform four times, including this current lineup, one thing holds true: whoever joins the band keeps the tradition of making great music alive. The latest additions are something special. I was fortunate to catch up with Little Feat’s long-time multi-instrumentalist, Fred Tackett, who resides in Topanga Canyon, outside of Los Angeles.
“It’s where all the hippiest musicians moved in the sixties, and I did and have been here 58 years,” said Tackett, speaking from his home.
Tackett’s area was fortunate to be spared from the devastation of the California wildfires in January, but everything around his town is burnt. The area is home to many music icons.
“First time I went to a Christmas show at the elementary school, Neil Young was there videotaping it,” Tackett said. “He had a video camera; nobody else had a video camera. Now you go to one, and everyone has their phones out. Buffalo Springfield guys lived out here. Richie (Hayward) and Lowell (George) lived on the street I live on, and all the musicians called it ‘The Little Feat Highway’. I’d see Marvin Gaye driving in his jeep; Stanley Clarke, the jazz bass player, still lives here, lots of folks.”
Hayward and George were original members of Little Feat, but both have passed. Tackett has been playing with the band for 38 years, and the band is in their 56th year.
“I always hung out and was kind of the auxiliary infielder, and then Billy (Payne) said,’Do you wanna get on the bus?’ I said,’sure.’ I was working with Lowell on his solo project when he died. It was 8 years before Billy and Paul decided to put the band back together, and that’s when they asked me to join up full-time. Before that I was writing songs for the band. We were all friends. LA is kind of a small town when it comes to the actual musicians who are working. It’s like a smaller group of people. I just saw Jackson (Browne) at a memorial for Lowell’s son Forrest.”
Forrest lost a battle with cancer this past November.
Tackett spoke highly of some of the new additions to the Little Feat lineup, including Tony Leone on drums and Scott Sharrard on guitar.
“Tony Leone rhymes; he’s a bad boy,” Tackett said. “Scott is a wonderful addition, a good friend now. Wonderful singer, a wonderful slide guitar player, and a wonderful regular guitar player. He just does it all, he’s great.”
Some bands have only the lead guy to watch. But with Little Feat, you can watch them all.
“At this point, everybody in the band is at the top of their game. From Sam to Kenny, and Tony and Scott, the new cats, and Billy and I. Those new guys inspired us, we were like, ‘We gotta keep up with these guys, they’re really good. We better start practicing,’” Tackett said, laughing.
Little Feat’s publicist is former Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally. Going from city to city on a tour bus with a guy like Dennis McNally must conjure up some pretty amazing stories, and Tackett concurred with that assessment.
Tackett and fellow Little Feat member Kenny Gradney will be playing in New Orleans this spring at Republic NOLA, part of Jazz Fest, with Anders Osborne and more great musicians as Dead Feat, playing the music of the Grateful Dead and Little Feat.
Hot on the heels of their upcoming tour and stop in at the Paramount in Rutland, Little Feat will release their latest album, “Strike Up the Band,” on May 9. Little Feat recently released a single, “Too High To Cut My Hair,” from that album, which Tackett and Sharrard co-wrote. There is a fun video for the song on Little Feat’s YouTube channel. Fred said,
“I came up with the title,” Tackett said. “My wife Patricia and I were at Jazz Fest, and she said, ‘Let me give you a little trim,’ and I said, ‘No baby, you’re too high to cut my hair.’ I thought that was a cool idea for a song. Scott had just joined the band, and Billy suggested I contacted Scott to write a song together. We shared ideas back and forth on the internet from New York to LA. We wrote the song 50/50 together; it was a definite collaboration. I had a whole different groove in mind, and one day, he sent me the way we play it now, but I wasn’t sure about it. We went to rehearsal and started playing it the way he wanted. Everybody in the band said, ‘Whoa, that’s it.’ I said, ‘Forget my idea; this is the way we’re doing it.’ It came out great; it’s a really fun song. The video has Steve Winwood’s daughter, Lilly Winwood, who is too high to cut our hair. She’s a sweetheart, a wonderful singer, an entertainer in her own right. It was great to meet her and see other people’s kids are rocking it too. The album was cut in Nashville because that’s where our equipment is, and we’re slaves to our equipment.”
The new album was recorded at Blackbird Studios and has collaborations with Molly Tuttle, Larry Campbell, Larkin Poe, and more.
Little Feat’s previous album, “Sam’s Place,” released last May, was their first studio album in 12 years and their first blues album. It was also their first album with Sharrard and Leone. It received a Grammy nomination. It’s unique because all the lead vocals were supplied by conga player/percussionist Sam Clayton, who typically provides backup vocals.
“We all got to go to the Grammy’s and all that,” Tackett said. “Taj Mahal beat us out, which is okay because he’s one of our buddies, too. He’s a wonderful guy and entertainer. If they’re giving Taj the Lifetime Achievement Award, they’re not going to stiff him on the Grammy. We didn’t think we had a chance, but it was fun to go and an honor to be nominated.”
Tackett ended the conversation by saying how much he loves his life and playing music for people.
“The actual playing and the music is like the whole deal. Traveling around on the bus, arriving in a town at 4 a.m., getting to the hotel, then sound check, and all that is a lot of work. We joke that we get paid for the travel and do the music for free. When we get on that stage for the two hours, I said how everybody in the band is so on top of their game, every night is such a joy. You don’t know what’s going to go down, and it’s always exciting. That’s my favorite part of the deal,” Tackett said.
For tickets to Little Feat’s performance on May 5, go to: paramountvt.org.
