The iconic band Little Feat is coming to Eugene Wednesday night for a concert at the McDonald Theatre. The band has a nearly 50-year history playing New Orleans swamp rock, funk, folk and more.
"I’ve been with them since 1969," Co/founder and keyboardist Bill Payne told KLCC in a recent interview. "A lot of you out there have heard of Frank Zappa. He helped put our band together with Lowell George and I."
At 76, Payne is considered by many great pianists, including Elton John, to be one of the finest American piano rock and blues musicians of all time. Not only for his trademark barrelhouse blues piano, but also for his work on the Hammond B3 organ.
A fine example of Payne’s finger work is on the Little Feat classic tune, "Feats Don’t Fail Me Now."
Payne started piano lessons at the age of 5 and joined his first band at 15. When he and singer/guitarist Lowell George decided to form a band, they needed a name.
As the story goes, a member of Zappa’s Mothers of Invention had once remarked on the petite nature of Lowell’s feet. That inspired the name for their new band, which is a play on words. In the band’s name, feet is spelled F-E-A-T, an abbreviation for “featured artist,” often used by the Beatles.
Little Feat combined elite musicianship and idiosyncratic songwriting to create what critics describe as “a repertoire that transcends boundaries.” Shortly before Lowell George’s death in 1979, the group disbanded. But in 1987, surviving members re-formed Little Feat. Today, Payne is the only original member still playing with the band.
Through its incarnations over the decades, the band has released new music and continues to offer up the Feat tunes audiences know and love. Payne told KLCC of all their classic songs, there’s one he never tires of playing.
“That piano lick,” he said, as he hummed it out the opening bars of "Dixie Chicken." Payne hinted it all came down to the difference between playing a G sharp instead of a G natural to get that iconic sound.
“Somebody asked me ... ‘how do you play that song a hundred thousand times and still play it like it’s meaningful? Don’t you ever get sick of it?’" said Payne. "And I said, ‘What do you do when you sing Happy Birthday to someone—you sing it from the heart, right?' That’s how I play Dixie Chicken. I play it from the heart.”
Little Feat’s 17th album, Strike Up the Band, was just released. The new album features a reinvigorated Little Feat line up and collaborations with the Grateful Dead’s Robert Hunter, Molly Tuttle, Larkin Poe and Nashville record producer Vance Powell. It builds on the groups’ nearly 50-year history of swamp rock, funk, folk, jazz, country and rockabilly-- all mixed up with that legendary Dixieland sound.
On the track New Orleans Cries When She Sings, Payne tickles the keys and offers up a sort of anthem to the Big Easy. His voice is still as strong as ever.
Payne said the band is amped to perform in Eugene. Fans should expect to hear some of Little Feat’s newest offerings along with plenty of old-school classics.
The current Little Feat line-up
Bill Payne-keyboards, vocals
Sam Clayton-congas, percussion, vocals
Kenny Gradrey-bass
Fred Tackett-guitar, mandolin
Scott Sharrard-guitar, vocals
Toney Leone-drums, vocals
The Horn Section
Jay Collins-saxophone
Steve Bernstien-trumpet
Erik Lawrence-saxophone
