Little : small in size, amount or degree.

Feat : an achievement that requires great courage, skill or strengths.

One band who certainly have the mantle of the latter and a founding member of the former in shoe size is the iconic US band Little Feat.

The Mothers Of Invention drummer, Jimmy Carl Black claims to have commented on founder Lowell George’s trotters, so little feet became Little Feat.

There are two stories about their formation. George, second guitarist and sometime vocalist to Frank Zappa’s Mothers presented him with the song Willin’. Story one, Frank didn’t like the reference to weed, whites and wine and sacked him. Story Two, Zappa realised that Lowell was a very good songwriter and encouraged him to form his own band.

I’d go with version two myself. Lowell George recruited fellow Mother,  Roy Estrada on bass, keyboard player Bill Payne and drummer Richie Hayward and put out their self named debut album in 1971.

Their style much beloved by their cult following and other musicians is rock, blues, country and jazz fusion with a healthy dose of  New Orleans inspired funk.

Warning : music lesson alert.

When you listen to the bass drum in any standard rock song in quavers or eighth notes the emphasis is on the 1^st,4^th and 5^th beat 1-2-3-4–5-6-7-8 ,1-2-3-4–5-6-7-8.

In the New Orleans funk style it is more of a 3,3,2 feel. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8,1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. More like the clave pattern in Afro-Cuban music or any Bo Diddley song. Add honky-tonk piano and slide guitar to the mix and you’ve got a killer sound.

Their third album Dixie Chicken with the addition of bassist Kenny Gradney,(Estrada left to join Captain Beefheart) second guitarist Paul Barrere and conga player Sam Clayton is a great example of this style.

This was the line up I had the honour of witnessing on the 26^th of July 1977 at Newcastle City Hall.

My boss Fred and his Foxy band mates had four tickets but drummer Nod backed out. Being a baker, he was up at four every morning so I could see a six hour round trip and a two hour concert wasn’t going to work for him. I was more than pleased to make up the numbers.

Wey aye canny bairn we’re off to Geordie toon !

So after work on a Wednesday evening Eric, Brian, Fred and myself piled into Eric’s Ford Fiesta and headed south east. We whiled away the hours singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody and head banging against the dashboard………….no, that wasn’t really true. I must have seen that in a film at some point.

I don’t really recall the journey but the concert was memorable. Little Feat were so laid back they were almost horizontal. Great musicianship and a unique overall sound. The two or more hours just flew by. I was a little disappointed because I thought the Tower of Power horns were part of the tour. Turned out they only played the London gigs.

There was a point in the evening when the band got a bit jazz fusion experimental when I noticed Brian making an exit. He was a great blues guitarist and singer himself. He once played with Salvation but was ousted by a prettier Midge Ure when the band became Slik. Brian was a bit portly with a serious foot odour problem – smelly feet (ha ha !)

We headed off to the bar at the end of the concert to find Brian in deep conversation with a newly found friend. He did the introductions.

Eric this is Fred, John and Eric

I shook the man’s hand thinking I’ve never been in the company of a brace of Erics before.

It wasn’t until the journey back that it dawned on me that it was Eric Burden of The Animals I was talking to. The Geordie accent should have given it away. Duh ! Talk about house of the rising dumb !

Our Eric let me crash at his place when we finally got back to Glasgow in the early hours of the morning. I had a most delightful breakfast with his charming wife before I meandered my way back to the northern suburbs still on cloud nine.

Little Feat only lasted a couple of more years before Lowell George disbanded the group and went solo. He died of the excesses of a Rock ‘n Roll life in 1979 while on tour. He was only thirty four. Little Feat have since reformed but have never reached the heights of that period without their founder.

I’m glad to have ticked that one off on my bucket list.

No mean feat ! Or no minging feet in Brian’s case !

(Post by John Allan from Bridgetown, Western Australia – May 2026)