The weather may just be warming up now but Little Feat has remained red hot.
If you go
Little Feat
Where: Rams Head on Stage, 33 West St., Annapolis
When: 8 p.m. Sunday-Tuesday
Info: $65; tickets may be available from online ticket re-sellers; 410-268-4545; ramsheadonstage.com.
Coming off the Merle Fest in North Carolina, the band is sliding into Annapolis for a three-gig stand before it continues on its travels still behind its 2008 release “Join The Band.” But of course this band has always been about life on the road. “The attraction to us as musicians and to the audience too is that what we do is not scripted,” pianist Bill Payne, a founding member of the band, said. “That is something the audience enjoys because they are part of something that is organic, literally developing and unfolding in front of their eyes and ears.”
The concept is so interesting that many long-time fans of the band that follow them from gig to gig, set up personal meet-and-greets, and even brunches, lunches and dinners among themselves and with the band.
Not that “Join the Band” doesn’t stand up to all of the other albums in the band’s catalog. This album — recorded and produced with Jimmy Buffett, an avid fan of the band — features collaborations with a host of guests including Buffett, Dave Matthews, Bob Seger and even Vince Gill.
One of the staples of Little Feat shows is that their live show seem so flawless — and effortless. But what would you expect from a band that had its start in 1969 when superb musicians lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboard player Payne founded it. Of course they grabbed equally talented musicians — who just happened to be their buddies — to join in.
To those that don’t know the history of Little Feat, it might be surprising that such Grade A musicians as Buffett and others would work on the album. But he, Seger and others have all worked together through the years, coming out of the same “school of rock.” That, of course, is also a huge draw for the fans but it also helps the band stay on top of its game, said Payne.
“Sometimes I don’t even know what we are going to play,” Payne said of his band mates. “It depends on what we hear from one another. That’s the other aspect of Little Feat that people enjoy.”
