Review: Little Feat – Strike Up The Band

Strike Up The Band

Genre: Rock

1 4 Days of Heaven 3 Days of Work 05:02
2 Bayou Mama 04:15
3 Shipwrecks 04:18
4 Midnight Flight 03:59
5 Too High To Cut My Hair 04:51
6 When Hearts Fall 04:35
7 Strike Up The Band (feat. Larkin Poe) 05:39
8 Bluegrass Pines (feat. Molly Tuttle, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams) 05:46
9 Disappearing Ink 03:37
10 Love and Life (Never Fear) 05:17
11 Dance a Little 05:20
12 Running Out of Time with the Blues 03:00
13 New Orleans Cries When She Sings 05:34
Total Runtime 01:01:13

The announcement for Strike Up The Band, the new album from Little Feat, promises a “swampy southern sound”. It has taken a good 13 years for the sextet led by guitarist Fred Tackett and keyboardist and singer Bill Payne to release a new album.

To say it up front: There is nothing swampy about the 13 songs on the new long player. Rocky? Yes. Bluesy? Of course. Country? Certainly. Playful? Definitely here and there (just listen to the keyboards in Shipwrecks).

And what else is there? Horns. With Art Edmaiston and Marc Franklin, the musicians from Los Angeles (yes, the southern rockers come from California!) have brought a saxophonist and a trumpeter on board. And with Larkin Poe they also have a female singer - but actually two, because Larkin Poe is a roots rock band from Atlanta (Georgia) around the singers and sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell.

What they offer on Strike Up The Band is earthy, rock-solid rock with the aforementioned influences, as well as some funk, for example in Too High To Cut My Hair. The album grooves, the solos are gripping, but the real surprise takes place in the background: Drummer Tony Leone phrases more than once in an unusual but very music-serving way, and instead of the typically expected bum-chack-bum, he serves up darn complex rhythm structures that integrate themselves superbly into the sound mix.

What's interesting about the mix is the musical staggering: the stage on which the action takes place is rather narrow, but surprisingly deep. I haven't heard it like this before, but it works and delivers wonderfully detailed entertainment, presented in 96 kHz and 24 bit.

A beautiful album, suitable for a friendly start to summer. (Thomas Semmler, HighResMac)

Bill Payne, piano, Hammond B3, synthesizer, keyboards, vocals
Scott Sharrard, slide & electric guitar, acoustic & resophonic guitar, vocals
Fred Tackett, guitar, mandolin, trumpet
Sam Clayton, perkussion, vocals, keyboard
Kenny Gradney, bass, backing vocals
Tony Leone, drums, vocals
Additional musicians:
Larkin Poe, vocals
Art Edmaiston, saxophone
Marc Franklin, trumpet