Little Feat

Little Feat - Rocky Mountain Jam - 2007 - Hot Tomato

Take the word "jam" to heart here: Rocky Mountain Jam is a mere six tracks long and none of them weigh in at under six minutes, with three of them stretching past ten - and of those, the "Spanish Moon/Skin It Back" medley rolls on to 15 minutes and "Dixie Chicken" stretches out to a whopping 21 minutes. At this length, the songs are almost afterthoughts, since the real meat is in the endless, elastic playing - and while this set, captured live in Boulder, CO, offers no overt surprises in either song selection or approach, it offers plenty of music for hardcore Feat fanatics to get lost in. It's all about the interplay, to hear how these guys feed off of each other, and they're in particularly fine form on Rocky Mountain Jam, digging deep polyrhythmic grooves and stretching out into dense yet supple jazzy improvs. There isn't much in the way of grit here - it's funky but clean - but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who's paid attention to the latter-day band. One of the nice things about Little Feat in their nearly fourth decade (!) of performing is that they're reliable professionals: they almost never give a bad performance and they still find ways to make their standards sound fresh to themselves and their dedicated fans. And that's exactly why Rocky Mountain Jam will please the faithful who have stuck with them through years of touring and years of live albums that have the same sound and feel - and often the same songs - yet still avoid sounding tired and dull. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine © 2011 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/rocky-mountain-jam-r944295/review

Sometimes, if you didn't know better you'd swear you were listening to "Miles Davis meets Steely Dan". "Rocky Mountain Jam" is Little Feat's ninth live album. Recorded at The Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO on March 18th, 2005, it features long improvisational jams including "One Clear Moment/Sunday Jam" played in a fusion style reminiscent of early Santana. If you like this style, Little Feat do a great jazzy fusion track called "Day or Night" on their classic 1975 "The Last Record Album" album (which thankfully, wasnt !)."Dixie Chicken" lasts over 21 minutes, and sounds great. Fred Tackett's trumpet and Bill Payne's keyboard work give a real honky tonk bar room flavour to the track . Throughout the album there are snippets of other tracks including "Day Or Night", "Lafayette Railroad", and the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star". This is a very different album from most of LF's releases. If you prefer LF's Southern boogie rock style, you may find the album "over-jazzified". However there is no doubting the band's immeasurable talent. Paul Barrere's slide guitar work on "Marginal Creatures" is truly special. This is only one of the great features of the album. The musical talents of people like Paul Barrére, Bill Payne, Fred Tackett, and the late Richie Hayward are largely responsible for the longevity of this legendary band. All.About.Jazz called this album "a cherry-picked collection of exceptional performances from a single show".The album is VHR by A.O.O.F.C. Search this blog for other LF releases. May Lowell George's god look after him.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1. "Marginal Creatures" (Barrère, Tackett) – 6:18
2. "One Clear Moment/Sunday Jam" (Barrère, Fuller, Payne) – 11:52
3. "Rocket In My Pocket" (George) – 6:59
4. "Spanish Moon/Skin It Back" (George, Barrère) – 15:34
5. "Dixie Chicken" (George, Martin) – 21:03
6. "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" (Barrère, George, Kibbee) – 6:38

MUSICIANS

Paul Barrére - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Fred Tackett - Guitar, Trumpet, Vocals, Mandolin
Kenny Gradney - Bass
Bill Payne - Keyboards, Vocals
Kyle Hollingsworth [String Cheese Incident] - Organ on "Feats Don't Fail Me Now"
Richard Hayward - Drums, Vocals
Sam Clayton - Percussion, Vocals
Shaun Murphy - Tambourine, Vocals
Nick Ohl - Strings