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Kickin' It At The Barn

by

Little Feat

 
Kickin' It At The Barn
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Avg: 4.0 (48 ratings)

  • We Say...

    Jam-band progenitors Little Feat soldier on making music that, while not quite as riff-rich as their original oeuvre, takes no backseat when it comes to delivering the goods. The band's core of pianist Bill Payne and guitarists Fred Tackett and Paul Barrere haven't lost a step — in fact, they've gained a broad perspective over the years, pairing the band's original Saturday-night-in-the-ozone party tunes with a wide-ranging taste for all manner of roots music. Often overlooked in the rush to discuss Little Feat's vaunted Lowell George period is the fact that the current Little Feat can drive a tune with the best of them, and their ability to thoughtfully work an extended tune while squeezing out every ounce of musical drama compares favorably with the Allman Brothers. The band's at its drive-it-'til-it-falls-apart best here on the extended tracks "Stomp" and "I Do What the Telephone Tells Me To Do," while the album's introspective closer, "Bill's River Blues," showcases their pensive side. And it's just amazing how much New Orleans' Radiators took from these guys.

  • They Say...

    Kickin' It at the Barn is Little Feat's first album for their own indie label, Hot Tomato Records, which makes more of a difference than you might think. In his liner notes for the album, guitarist/vocalist Paul Barrére said they called the album Kickin' It at the Barn because it captures the band laying back and relaxing while recording at bandmember Fred Tackett's home studio, the Barn, and that's exactly what the album sounds like -- it's relaxed and warm, sounding more comfortable and lived-in than such otherwise likeable latter-day efforts as Chinese Work Songs. That vibe is welcome and pleasurable, notably different than some of their platters for CMC, and that alone would separate this from other Feat albums of a recent vintage, but there are also some ventures into different sounds and styles, such as "Corazones y Sombras," which is a dead ringer for Los Lobos. Yet what really makes this work is that the songwriting is often sharper than it has been of late. There are still a few stumbles -- instrumental vamps like Bill Payne's "Stomp" are better-suited for live performances -- but Barrére and Tackett's opening pair of "Night on the Town" and "Heaven Forsaken" are first-rate, and the moody "Why Don't It Look Like the Way That It Talk" isn't far behind either. Like much reunited Little Feat, Kickin' It at the Barn is a little too laid-back and groove-centric for its own good, but there's a better variety of grooves, sounds, and songs on this, enough to make it one of their stronger latter-day affairs.

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