ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Album #72 is Sailin' Shoes by Little Feat.

Little Feat's first album didn't sell well. This was the groups second. Released in 1972 with a more polished sound and a varied mix of rock, pop, country, blues...

It could be argued that the band didn't quite gel until the third record; 1973's Dixie Chicken, but if you play the first three albums one after the other, it's easy to hear the evolution.

Lowell George songwriting was turned up one notch and the record solidified the groups reputation among critics and a growing but still small count of fans. Small when it comes to record sales.

After Sailin' Shoes failed to sell as well as hoped Little Feat disbanded for a short time and Roy Estrada left the group.

Regardless of commercial success this is a great record from a great band. And that's reason enough to have it as our Album of the Month. Bu there's also a clear Zappa connection:

Little Feat was formed in 1969. Guitarist and singer Lowell George had been a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention for a short while, but as the story goes Zappa told George that he was talented enough to form his own band.
Lowell George got a perfect bass player in Roy Estrada when the Mothers disbanded the same year.

There are more Zappa/Mothers clues in Little Feat.

* The band name came from a comment that the Mothers drummer Jim Black made about Lowell George's feet.

* A pre Feat recording by the group Factory (including Lowell George) was included on the Zappa bootleg Metal Man Has Hornet Wings in the late 70's. It is the song Lightning Rod Man which is said to be dedicated to Zappa's wife (?)

* The live Feat album Waiting For Columbus includes a cover version of Don't Bogart Me, a song by the group Fraternity Of Man which included Elliot Ingber on guitar. Ingber plays guitar on the first Zappa/Mothers album Freak Out!

* Neon Park who provided artwork for the Little Feat albums also made the classic front cover painting of Weasels Ripped My Flesh, a Mothers album which also features Little Feat leader Lowell George on one track (Didja Get Any Onya).

S.H. & N.S.. - February 2008.