In the annals of American rock bands, Little Feat is one of the more criminally underrated acts to arrive on the scene since releasing its self-titled 1971 debut. Fans will get to experience that unique juju when the Feat rolls into Huntington’s Paramount.
Launched by the initial quartet of vocalist/bassist Lowell George and bassist Roy Estrada (originally from the Mothers of Invention), along with keyboardist Bill Payne and drummer Richie Hayward in 1969, the band has gone through myriad changes, with Payne the only original member left standing.
While peers like The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead and The Eagles may have reaped significant commercial success, the Feat has occupied its own singular niche thanks to a sound that mixes up blues, rock, New Orleans funk, jazz and country. It’s a big part of why Payne has been keeping the Little Feat legacy going for nearly six decades.
“I’m very protective and territorial about the group because I’d have to play in 10 different bands to play the width and span of music that Little Feat plays,” Payne said.
That determination has seen Payne and his compatriots survive the deaths of George (heart attack in 1979), Hayward (lung disease in 2010) and longtime guitarist Paul Barrere (liver cancer in 2019). That said, Little Feat’s core of Payne, singer/percussionist Sam Clayton, bassist Kenny Gradney and multi-instrumentalist Fred Tackett have rallied to release “Strike Up the Band,” the group’s 17th album and first collection of original material since 2012’s “Rooster Rag.” The addition of guitarist Scott Sharrard in 2019 and drummer Tony Leone the following year was the latest creative shot in the arm for the band. It’s a development Payne readily welcomed.
“When Tony and Scott got into the band, Fred Tackett and I looked at each other and thought that there was nothing this band couldn’t play,” Payne admitted. “We can tackle anything we want to play right now and that wasn’t always the case. For both of them, coming into this band and growing up listening to us, there was a pressure they felt and articulated a couple of times—they knew the shoes they were walking into. But to their credit, they’ve taken it on as their own.”
For “Strike Up the Band,” Grammy Award-winner Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton/Phish/Jack White) was tapped to produce. Decamping to Powell’s Tennessee-based Blackbird Studio and Sputnik Sound, Little Feat whipped up 17 songs in a three-week dash with 13 jams making the cut. For Payne, having the band join forces with Powell was the key.
“Some of my favorite parts were working with Vance for the first time,” Payne said. “I’ve never worked with anyone that’s quite that quick in the sense that he was two to three steps ahead of me almost the entire way. I really felt like I didn’t have to say anything. I’d start to say something and then he’s already there. A couple of times, I was able to interject something and then he’d suggest trying something and I’d give it a shot. Most of all, I was happy that people were having fun recording this project.”
For this current tour, concert-goers can expect a broad representation of Little Feat’s extensive canon, along with several eclectic choices that Payne and his compatriots are looking forward to diving into.
“We’re going to play a couple of songs from ‘Sam’s Place’ along with classic Little Feat songs people expect to hear,” Payne said. “And then we’ll play some songs off of ‘Strike Up the Band.’ A fourth pillar or leg in this thing is to have a deeper dive into our catalog.”
Expect plenty of Little Feat in the next year and a half. Overseas travel includes stops in Europe, Japan and Australia. And with four unreleased songs left over from the “Strike Up the Band” sessions, 2026 might just yield a new studio album.
Then there’s “Carnival Ghosts,” a book Payne is working on for Regalo Publishers, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster, slated to come out in a year and a half. There’s plenty of action going on for the 76-year-old Payne, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I hate to say it, but bop till you drop,” Payne said. “We’ve had Richie, Lowell and Paul do exactly that. I’m just saying, if you’ve got something you love to do, why not keep doing it? About 17 years ago, people were asking when I was going to retire. I’d say, ‘Midnight or one o’clock in the evening—I’m not sure.’”
Little Feat will be appearing on Oct. 25 at The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. For more information, visit www.theparamountny.com or call 631-673-7300.
