Little Feat may be the most beloved band that mainstream rock radio consistently underserved. The Los Angeles ensemble — formed in 1969 around the songwriting and slide guitar of Lowell George — produced a catalog that defies easy categorization: part New Orleans R&B, part country boogie, part psychedelic rock, and entirely its own thing. The band’s best work sounds like nothing else, and the tribute act Sailin’ Shoes has made it their project to honor that music with the care it deserves. They bring that effort to Daryl’s House in Pawling on May 6th.
Little Feat’s catalog demands more from tribute musicians than most. Lowell George’s slide guitar work alone represents a style that took years to develop — fluid, conversational, rhythmically unpredictable in the best way — and the band’s rhythm section, anchored by Bill Payne’s keyboard work, has its own complex vocabulary. Sailin’ Shoes addresses this by focusing on getting the arrangements right rather than settling for close enough.
The setlist will draw naturally from the essential records: Sailin’ Shoes (1972), Dixie Chicken (1973), Feats Don’t Fail Me (1974), and the live album Waiting for Columbus that remains one of rock’s great documents of a band at its peak. Songs like “Willin’,” “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” “Dixie Chicken,” and “Time Loves a Hero” give audiences a portrait of a band operating at a level most of their contemporaries couldn’t touch.
Daryl’s House in Pawling is an intimate, music-first venue that serves this kind of show well. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are available through TicketWeb.