Album Reviews

Dixie Chicken and Sailin' Shoes are the meat of the LIttle Feat catalog, with Dixie Chicken arguably being the group's finest studio effort.

Dixie Chicken and Sailin' Shoes are the meat of the LIttle Feat catalog, with Dixie Chicken arguably being the group's finest studio effort.

In addition to the title track, it's got Lowell George classics, the hard charging "Two Trains" and the contemplative late afternoon rumination "Roll um Easy" as well as his bitter, pointed time capsule "Kiss it Off" featuring ominous dark synth blasts courtesy of Malcolm Cecil's Moog, that summarizes 1973 as well as any song written during the Richard ("milquetoast Hitler") Nixon  Watergate era. Add a great cover of Allen Toussaint's poignant admonition, the heavily syncopated New Orleans gem "On Your Way Down" and you have a hell of a side one!

Side two is equally strong, opening with Fred Tackett's "Fool Yourself." Tackett was a Little Feat occasional sideman back then but after Lowell George's death he became more heavily involved in the group and has toured with them in a front position for years thereafter. The side also includes "Walkin All Night,"  an excellent New Orleans style contribution from guitarist/vocalist Paul Barrere and keyboardist Bill Payne as well as two more strong Lowell George efforts: "Fat Man in the Bathtub," the song that leads off the live two-fer Waiting For Columbus more recently issued by Mobile Fidelity and the dark  funk/flute "Juliette." The album ends with "Lafayette Railroad" an instrumental denouement drenched in George's sunset slide guitar.

By the time this album was recorded, the group's shifting personnel had stabilized, with Barrere and George sharing guitar chores, Bill Payne handling keyboards, Kenny Gradney on bass and the potent percussive duo of Sam Clayton on congas and Richie Hayward on drums. The result is a tight, tight, funky effort that captured the mood of a broad swath of disaffected young people.

Add some great additional support on backing vocals by Bonnies Raitt and Bramlett and others, plus additional musical contributions and you have a fully fleshed out studio effort that cemented the band's image and its place in the musical fermament of the time.

A great choice for a reissue from Mobile Fidelity but somethings' terribly wrong here sonically. The original is not exactly a bright, tinkly affair, whoever engineered and mastered it (the original back cover says "Address  group at—Naked Snake Pub Club, Neon Park, General Deiivery, Topanga Canyon, California, for studio sources, engineering personnel, mastering lab credit, group contortion, neglected credits and machine lore)."

The original does, however,  have decent high frequency response, reasonably sharply drawn cymbals, vocals and guitar transients. 

This Mobile Fidelity reissue is beyond dark. It's thick and dull.  I have no doubt Mobile Fidelity got the master tape. But this record's top end extension makes it sound as if it was sourced from a  cassette played back on a machine with poorly aligned playback heads. 

If that's really what the tape sounded like, I think Mobile Fidelity should have passed on this reissue. But  i am afraid part of the problem are the choices made during mastering. The Waiting For Columbus  reissue also reviewed this month tended toward dark and dull, particularly compared to the original Mobile Fidelity reissue, but one could argue that that one was too bright and too "airy." That was my conclusion and I ended up liking the new reissue, though I've since heard from some readers who agreed with my observations but disagreed with my conclusion: they found it too dark and not at all to their liking.

If they thought that record was dull, wait until they hear this one. It is devoid of high frequency response. Again, the original isn't exactly a sparkly, crystalline affair, but it does have some air and some transient sharpness.

It's as if Mobile Fidelity has gone from issuing overly bright records to overly dull ones. 

 If it was up to me, I would have simply pulled the plug. It's difficult to recommend this reissue. You're sure to be disappointed and if not you must have a really bright system because this is one Dixie Chicken that's all dark meat.