Down Upon the Suwannee River
It may have been the obtuse artistic and lyrical sensibilities of the late Lowell George that garnered Little Feat its cachet with critics, but it was the band's potent, Southern-rooted musical punch that carried it to fame in the late '70s. It's that dedicated sense of musicality--since infused with a little jazz, cool--that carried Feat onward for two decades, making them jam-band godfathers documented in this live set in the bargain. Recorded at a festival in Florida's Suwannee River Park, this double-disc's 17 live tracks pay early homage to George's legacy with swamp-savory workouts of "Spanish Moon," and "Sailin' Shoes." But any sense of nostalgia is blunted by the band's muscular groove in the show's first half and its adventurous, jam-savvy spirit in the last. There they range from lugubrious workouts of Bob Dylan's "It Takes A Lot to Laugh" and "Tripe Face Boogie" to a jazz and classically infused, near half-hour trek through "Dixie Chicken" and the gentle "Willin'" and rough-'n'-tumble "Fat Man in the Bathtub" that closes out the set.--Jerry McCulley