Consumer Guide Album

Little Feat: Little Feat [Warner Bros., 1970]
Lots of "tight" groups are influenced by the Band these days, but these guys could almost pass for them. The sensibility is freakier ("Strawberry Flats" is a weary state-of-the-counterculture song, like Mother Earth's "Then I'll Be Moving On"), and there are shades of the country Stones ("Truck Stop Girl" is a more empathetic "Dead Flowers") as well as a convincing Howlin' Wolf imitation. But the dark instrumental interweave and pained vocals are right off Music From Big Pink. And I've always admired that album from a distance. B