In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: Bill Payne

  • Little Feat- Feats Don’t Fail Me Now- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    Little Feat- Feats Don’t Fail Me Now- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    For the tasty Little Feat fourth studio album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, Little Feat lifers Bill Payne and Paul Barrere sat down with me to talk. Or maybe they should have been lying down on a shrink’s couch. “I loved him, and I hated him,” said a clearly emotional Paul Barrere in this intense conversation, which inevitably begins and ends with the subject of the enigmatic musical genius, Lowell George. “Man, this interview was like a therapy session,” Bill Payne said after, looking me straight in the eye.

    If only musicians and music writers voted for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then Little Feat would have been inducted years ago on their first ballot of eligibility. Encompassing every form of indigenous American music since its inception, Little Feat was formed by the late enigmatic slide guitarist/singer/songwriter Lowell George and the ace keyboard player Bill Payne, with Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention bass player Roy Estrada, fellow Hollywood High singer/guitarist Paul Barrere (d. October 2019), seemingly eight-limbed drummer the late Richie Hayward, with Kenny Gradney, Sam Clayton, Fred Tackett, and much later, ex-Pure Prairie League singer/songwriter Craig Fuller all to follow.The first Little Feat album came out all the way back in 1971, not so much released as it sort of oozed out. Like practically every one of their first five studio records, including Summer 1974’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, the debut received great reviews but didn’t sell diddly. “That first album sold 11,000 copies,” admits Little Feat co-founder/keyboard whiz Bill Payne, “The second album, Sailin’ Shoes, sold only 13,000. Maybe 17, tops.” Yet Little Feat soon would be tagged as America’s best unknown band, but that dubious distinction doesn’t feed the bulldog.

    Songs include “Oh Atlanta”, “Spanish Moon”, “Skin It Back”, “Rock and Roll Doctor”, the blazing medley “Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie”, and a long lost 1974 live-in-the-studio performance of  “Spanish Moon/Skin It Back/Fat Man in the Bathtub”  included. This is a no-holds-barred insider’s look at the talented but troubled Little Feat co-founder Lowell George and his complicated relationships within the band prior to his death from a drug-induced heart attack in 1979. This show is dedicated to the memory of George, plus band co-founder/drummer Richie Hayward and now too guitarist/singer Paul Barrere.”Keep on playin’ that tambourine…” – Redbeard

  • Little Feat- Dixie Chicken- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    Little Feat- Dixie Chicken- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    The  anniversary of Little Feat’s breakthrough third album, Dixie Chicken, falls  within weeks of the anniversary of Little Feat’s most popular seller five years later, the double live album Waiting for Columbus. January 1973’s Dixie Chicken  was the last Little Feat album on which Lowell George, the talented but enigmatic singer, songwriter, and slide guitarist, was the dominant force in the band. He produced Dixie Chicken and again wrote most of the songs. If there’s a demarcation point in the evolution of Little Feat, the Dixie Chicken album is probably it. If only the world’s most acclaimed rock musicians voted for election into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Feat would have been inducted on the first ballot twenty-five years ago. The list of famous Little Feat fans included the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Palmer, and Robert Plant just for starters. Led originally by the late talented, enigmatic slide guitarist/ singer/ songwriter Lowell George, my guests ace pianist Bill Payne  and singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Barrere (who passed away in October 2019), the critics loved Little Feat just as much as the superstars did. But as you will hear in this classic rock interview, for most of the Seventies they didn’t sell many albums. “That first Little Feat album only sold 11,000 copies,” Bill Payne blurts out. “The second album Sailin’ Shoes only sold 13,000. Maybe 17,000 tops, initially. So I was incredulous that they would even let us do a second album.” Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes, coming as it did in May 1972, may not have been the band’s actual first album, but there is no question it is where this all-American band’s legend and legacy began. Little Feat lifers Bill Payne and Paul Barrere sat down with me to talk. Or maybe they should have been lying down on a couch. “I loved him, and I hated him,” said a clearly emotional Barrere in this intense conversation which inevitably begins and ends with the subject of the enigmatic musical genius, Lowell George. “Man, this interview was like a therapy session,” Bill Payne confessed, looking me straight in the eye.Songs include “Easy to Slip”, “Fat Man in the Bath Tub”,”Willin’ “,”Dixie Chicken”, “Oh Atlanta”, “Spanish Moon”,”All That You Dream”, and “Rocket in My Pocket”. This is a no-holds-barred insider’s look at the talented but troubled Little Feat co-founder Lowell George and his complicated relationships within the band prior to his death from a drug-induced heart attack in 1979. This show is dedicated to the memory of George, plus band co-founder/drummer Richie Hayward and now too guitarist/singer Paul Barrere.- Redbeard

  • Little Feat- Sailin’ Shoes- Ultrasonic Studio 1974

    Little Feat- Sailin’ Shoes- Ultrasonic Studio 1974

    The upcoming golden anniversary of the Little Feat album Sailin’ Shoes and the birth of their legend and legacy certainly is a formal affair, so you will want to don the proper attire for such a funky fete right down to your footwear. This storied, much-bootlegged live-in-studio performance from 1974 is actually the title song from their second album, “Sailin’ Shoes”, from the master tape and should get your behind in the proper frame of mind for our fiftieth anniversary interview coming here In the Studio the first week in May. –Redbeard

  • Little Feat- Best pt 2- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    Little Feat- Best pt 2- Bill Payne, the late Paul Barrere

    In spite of being the most played Little Feat studio album on American radio, by heading up possibly their best studio album Time Loves a Hero   in 1977, Little Feat’s Bill Payne and Paul Barrere saved their beloved band from dysfunction. Yet by default, Payne and Barrera effectively edged out band founder Lowell George from his former leadership position. Songs in this part two conclusion come from the 13-CD box set Rad Gumbo  including “Hi Roller”, “Rocket in My Pocket”, and “Time Loves a Hero”; the first post-Lowell album title song “Down on the Farm”; plus the 1988 comeback Let It Roll   with “Hate to Lose Your Lovin’” & the  flat out title song; “Texas Twister” & “Shake Me Up” , all hosted by Payne and the recently departed Barrrere (d.Oct 2019). – Redbeard

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  • Little Feat- Dixie Chicken medley- Dallas 1988

    Little Feat- Dixie Chicken medley- Dallas 1988

    In producer Glyn Johns wonderfully behind-the-scenes memoir Sound Man ,  he tells how he suggested to the Rolling Stones during preliminary sessions for Back and Blue   that they all go to see Americans Little Feat in a theater concert in order to jump-start the venerable British band. Johns remembers it as one of the best shows he ever witnessed by anybody, with the Dixie Chicken   line up of the late Lowell George, Bill Payne, Paul Barrere (d. Oct 2019), the late Richie Hayward, Kenny Gradney and Sam Clayton. Some ten years later Doug Hall and I recorded Little Feat in front of 10,000 appreciative fans in Dallas, with the band still laying it down thick. –Redbeard

  • Little Feat- Apolitical Blues- Dallas 11-20-88

    Little Feat- Apolitical Blues- Dallas 11-20-88

    Over the years since this song was written by the late Lowell George, first appearing way back on the Sailin’ Shoes  album, the names may have changed from Chairman Mao and Al Gore, but I’ll bet that Senator Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham know about the  “Apolitical Blues”, performed here by Little Feat in front of 10,000 Dallas-Ft.Worth blood donors in November 1988.- Redbeard

     

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    There is more of this exclusive Little Feat concert here , plus our In the Studio interview with Bill Payne and Paul Barrere with candid insight into the enigmatic Lowell George.