There were pioneers who might not have known it at the time, as they were just following their instincts. People like Gram Parsons and the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Poco, Pure Prairie League, Goose Creek Symphony, John Fogerty and The Blue Ridge Rangers, all were on the cutting edge. They married country flavors and rock and roll long before the before the Americana tag came into being to define the melding of roots traditions.
Some of these bands continue today, thankfully, and one of them is Little Feat. Though they have been through deaths in the family; first Lowell George, way too young, and then Richie Hayward just a few years ago. Little Feat rocks on - rootsy and funky and real. A couple of Tuesday’s ago, Little Feat released Rooster Rag, their first studio album of new material in nine years. There are new songs from long time band members Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett and a brand new songwriting collaboration between founding Little Feat member Bill Payne and Grateful Dead Lyricist Robert Hunter, who contributed four new songs for this, Little Feat’s fifteenth album of original material. Today’s video is one of the Payne/Hunter co-writes and it is the title track, "Rooster Rag," filmed at the Alley in North Hollywood, California.
- Jessie Scott
