Ten years ago the idea of Little Feat without Lowell George seemed as laughable as trying to imagine the Beatles making a go of it without John Lennon. Although Little Feat wasn't entirely a creature of George's imagination – the highly personalized interplay of pianist Bill Payne, guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney and drummer Richie Hayward made sure of that – the band's direction and sensibility was so much a product and reflection of its leader that when George declared the band finished in '79 (mere months before his death), no one dared argue.
Yet nine years later the band's back on its Feat again, sounding almost as fresh as it did the first time around. Has
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somebody at Warner Bros. gotten good with a Ouija board, or what?
Don't worry; this isn't that kind of revival. Rather, it's more a matter of reconciliation, as the remaining members of Little Feat come to terms with both the band's legacy and its sound. And though the latter seems easy enough to re-create – thanks to former Pure Prairie League singer Craig Fuller, it's easy to imagine "Hate to Lose Your Lovin'" surfacing somewhere on the second side of Dixie Chicken – the real magic of Let It Roll is that the best songs sound like the, sort of thing Lowell George might have written. "One Clear Moment," for instance, does a fine job of balancing overt erotic desire with furtive ambivalence, easily simulating the romantic unease that was one of George's hallmarks, while the title tune has no trouble pulling up alongside the rest of the band's repertoire of road songs.
Naturally, this isn't an absolutely perfect resurrection; "Cajun Girl," though an admirable song, could have been recorded by half a dozen other acts without sounding much different, and "Voices on the Wind" displays a degree of soppiness that seems out of place here. On the whole, though, Let It Roll more than lives up to what the band name promises, making it an impressive Feat indeed. (RS 539)
J.D. CONSIDINE
