Little Feat Archives

Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris Cover Lowell George on Reissued Tribute Album

Posted by Luke Poling at 9:00 am No Responses »

Mar 042026

Omnivore Recordings has re-released the 1997 Lowell George tribute album, Rock and Roll Doctor: Lowell George Tribute Album. The record includes covers by folks like Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Hillman and Randy Newman. But the re-issue also features a new track, “Willin’,” which features Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Lowell George’s daughter, Inara George. The track is a beautiful take, with the weary voices of Nelson and George combined with the beauty of Harris’ to make something really special. Continue reading »

In Memoriam: Bob Weir

Posted by Curtis Zimmermann at 10:30 am No Responses »

Feb 032026

In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.

If there was a lifetime achievement award for cover songs, Bob Weir would certainly be a recipient.

Weir, who passed away on January 10 at the age of 78, had a career that spanned more than 60 years. As a member of the Grateful Dead, its various spinoffs (Furthur, the Dead, Dead and Company), as well as numerous solo projects and collaborations, Weir played and sang on countless cover songs. Since a majority of his live performances were recorded or preserved in some way, he left behind an immense body of material that spans his entire career.
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The Best Cover and Tribute Albums of 2024

Posted by Staff at 9:00 am No Responses »

Dec 192024

Follow all our Best of 2024 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

A great cover song is hard enough to pull off. Doing it over and over again enough times to make a great cover album is something like a miracle. This year, miracles abounded. We awarded only the third or fourth five-star album in the site’s history. That’s our number one, naturally. But if we’d run a full review of our number two album, it might have gotten five stars too.

Our list includes tributes to everyone from Lou Reed to Low to Tom Petty—twice. It includes jammy experimental covers of ’90s alt-rock, fingerpicked guitar covers of Kraftwerk, and skankin’ ska covers of Weird Al. It translates Leonard Cohen into Hebrew and Talking Heads into Spanish. It honors Fleetwood Mac before Fleetwood Mac and deeper Bob Dylan cuts than you can imagine. (Seriously, imagine the most obscure Bob Dylan song you can. These are more obscure than that.) It was that kind of year.

Review: Little Feat’s ‘Sam’s Place’

Posted by Seuras Og at 11:00 am No Responses »

Jun 052024

A new Little Feat album seems remarkable enough; as in, are they still a thing? The fact that Sam’s Place is a (mostly) covers album, and a blues cover album at that, is less so. Which seems a tad snarky as, actually, in a gourmet-grits-no-grocery, cordon-bleu-meat-and-potatoes way, the album has its pockets jammed full of charm.

Sam’s Place is Little Feat’s first “new” album in 12 years. With a back catalog as long as Little Feat’s, one might ask if they even need to bother with new product. Sam’s Place doesn’t really answer that question, as the “new” material here is anything but new. Perhaps this is their Blue and Lonesome, a stopgap release from a band that’s past its peak but has something still left in the tank. Only time will tell.
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Little Feat Delivers Fiery Cover of “Got My Mojo Working” on New Album

Posted by Curtis Zimmermann at 9:00 am No Responses »

May 242024

In the late ‘90s, I took a musicology class on the history of 20th century American music. During a section on blues, my professor played Muddy Waters’ rendition of “Got My Mojo Working.” “Now,” she said after it ended. “What is the song about?” Frustrated by our blank stares, she yelled out, “Sex, people. It’s about sex.” More precisely, it’s about someone trying to score and failing miserably, but that’s the blues for you.

We’re now almost one-quarter of the way through the 21st Century, and we can still talk about “Got My Mojo Working,” and all its tawdriness, in the present tense. Last week, the long-running rock band Little Feat released a live cover on its newest album Sam’s Place.

Review: ‘Long Distance Love – A Sweet Relief Tribute to Lowell George’

Posted by Seuras Og at 8:30 am No Responses »

May 212024

Well, how about that! On the same day as a still-going Little Feat put out a blues cover album, Sam’s Place (review incoming), so too choose Sweet Relief to put out Long Distance Love, a star-studded charity tribute to their late founder and lynchpin, Lowell George. Star-studded? Well, let’s say the likes of Elvis Costello, Dave Alvin and Ben Harper are all present and accounted for, with George’s own daughter, Inara George, also putting in an appearance.

Lowell George was a slide guitar maestro, a singer/songwriter with a penchant for complex swampland boogie, polyrhythmic shuffles to delight both brain and bootheels. He formed Little Feat back in 1969, after a short spell with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. A set of well-received albums followed, until 1979, when George (a) dissolved the band, (b) released his solo album Thanks, I’ll Eat It Here, and (c) died of a massive heart attack at the age of 34. It took eight years before the relicts of what had assuredly been his band reconvened, and they remain a vital presence, with George’s songs still the ones the fans mainly come to hear. These are the songs that return to the spotlight on Long Distance Love, and the four and a half decades since Lowell’s voice was stilled have done nothing to dampen their vibe.
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