Still mooching around in the early days of country rock… I’ve known the name Little Feat for ever but never, to the best of my knowledge, heard anything by them. So, let’s begin at the beginning with (The Album) Little Feat. Solidly country rock I would say - I enjoyed it, not withstanding the fact that Truck Stop Girl is the sort of Country-And-Western-maudlin-story-telling-about-truck-drivers that sets my teeth on edge. But overall a pleasant listen. So I moved on to Feats Don’t Fail Me Now.
Well, that was a surprise. Wiki describes the album genre as Country Funk, and goddamn is it funky. If I remember correctly, a Dr John album I listened to over last winter was a kinda vaguely similar vibe, but beyond that the closest thing I can think of is Funkadelic. I loved it.
Tempting as it was to listen to more Little Feat, I moved on to (don’t laugh) Rod Stewart.
There was a time when Rod/The Faces enlivened the charts with cracking single after cracking single. You Wear It Well is my favorite, and that’s on Never A Dull Moment, so that’s what I listened to. Ahem. It’s a mess. The low point is a bizarre cover of Dylan’s Mama You’ve Been On My Mind - a proper dog’s breakfast. One thing I hadn’t realized about Rod and the Faces was how little writing input they had on the albums. More than half the songs on this album are covers, and the same seems to be true of others.
Let’s get back to country rock. How about John Fogerty?.Consensus seems to be that Centerfield and Blue Moon Swamp are his two best albums. Blue Moon Swamp has great songs and just sounds like everyone involved is having a whale of a time. Loved it. And Centerfield is even better - It doesn’t have the same Joi De Vivre, but everything about it is pretty much faultless. I hadn’t realized how good some of his solo stuff is (an especially pleasing discovery, as Creedence’s Cosmo’s Factory (which again I listened to last winter) wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped).
Little Feat hadn’t really found their sound on their first album. It’s quite solid, but unspectacular. Have you noticed how dramatically better the “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” version of “Willin’” is than the one on the first album? There, it’s an unremarkable little pop song, while on the later version, which of course became the standard version, it’s one of my very favorite songs of all time. And if you like funky Little Feat, don’t look no further than for the following album, “Dixie Chicken”, probably their masterpiece. And “Waiting For Columbus” is one of the best live albums ever.
If you want to stick to early country rock, maybe Buffalo Springfield? They only had three short studio albums, but the talent is undeniable. Poco, who formed from the ashes of Buffalo Springfield, were also excellent and influential pioneers of country rock. They belong to the bunch of late 60s musicians and bands who paved the way for the Eagles, actually the whole LA rock scene of the 70s.
ETA: oh, cannot let this slide: also look out for the two late 60s albums by Dillard & Clark, and Gene Clark’s solo albums. Terrific stuff.
Probably because it was the first of their albums I had/listened to, but Let It Roll is one of my all-time favorites. Definitely a second era of the band, but this album at least is well worth checking out.