Little Feat - Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years Of Little Feat (4CD Box Set) (2000)

These 83 songs go a long way toward demonstrating how Little Feat evolved their hard-to-define but infectious swamp-rock, blues, and boogie sound. The final disc in the four-disc Hotcakes & Outtakes, dubbed "Studio Outtakes," offers up the very first demo tapes made by Lowell George, the mastermind of the group. Backed by keyboardist Billy Payne, drummer Richie Hayward, and bassist Roy Estrada (the first player to leave the band), George's down-and-dirty slide guitar and plaintive voice blend grit, intelligence, and humor. Combining an off-center Southern California rock sensibility (George and Estrada had both been members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention) with a love of New Orleans rhythms, Little Feat became a quintessentially American band. Songs from their classic albums are gathered here, as well as live recordings and tracks from the post-George era. After George died, the group took a hiatus in the 1980s before reforming; the third disc chronicles 1988 to '98 and shows that Little Feat are as distinctive as ever. The box includes notes by Bud Scoppa, interviews with the group's founding members, and a previously unseen painting by Neon Park, whose cover art graced a number of Little Feat albums. The definitive Feat overview, this is ideal for old fans and newcomers alike. --Wally Shoup