Little Feat has always been a band in flux, which remains true today. Even while celebrating the 50th anniversary of their fourth LP, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, the band’s current iteration is moving forward with Sam’s Place, their first studio release in a dozen years and first all-blues set. There have been a few changes since that last one, Rooster Rag. Most significantly, Paul Barrere, a key member since the early ‘70s, passed away in 2019. His seat has since been filled by guitarist and vocalist Scott Sharrard, and there’s a new drummer since that last effort as well, Tony Leone. Filling out the band are keyboardist Bill Payne, a co-founder of Little Feat, bassist Kenny Gradney and percussionist/ vocalist Sam Clayton—both of whom joined in the early ‘70s—and guitarist/ vocalist Fred Tackett, who signed on in the late ‘80s after the band took a long hiatus following the death of founder Lowell George. For Sam’s Place, it is, appropriately, Clayton who serves as frontman, belting out all shades of the blues—from raging electric boogie-rock to the more toned-down “Long Distance Love,” featuring a guest vocal from Bonnie Raitt and one of a few Muddy Waters classics covered in the set. Willie Dixon also figures prominently in the track list, with three songs emanating from his pen, including “Mellow Down Easy,” which some fans may know from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band version. The album’s sole original, “Milkman,” written by Clayton, Tackett and Sharrard, gets the ball rolling, and things wrap up with a live, sweat[1]inducing take on the blues anthem “I’ve Got My Mojo Working.” Some of the names may have changed but rest assured, Sam’s Place is as much a Little Feat session as those long-ago recordings that are now into their golden years.
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