Fred Tackett (Little Feat) interview/performance this Tuesday at 8 PM!
To hear/download the Podcast recording of the Fred Tackett interview & 4 songs live-acoustic.
(((Click Here)))
Who: Fred Tackett, multi-instrumentalist from Little Feat
What: Interview & live performance on the radio
When: Tuesday 5-23-2006, 8PM Central Time
Where: KXUA 88.3 FM Fayetteville
Webcast: http://listen.uark.edu/kxua.m3u
Setlist Radio Blog: Honest Tunes on www.dgold.info/radio
mp3 Preview: Honest Man on Honest Tunes (8 minutes, 256kbps mp3)
Fred Tackett is a multi-instrumentalist who has been recording music for 40 years so far. Tackett plays mandolin, guitar, dobro, trumpet, and more; writes and sings songs in various solo projects; and tours internationally as a member of classic-roots-rock band Little Feat.
Check out his awesome discography (below), and you’ll see many of the kind of jams and roots music records we like to spin on Honest Tunes Radio, with a focus on honest songwriting and soulful delivery (along with some pop hits and session work credentials). It is an honor to get to hang out with Fred and ask him some questions about his roots in Arkansas, and his musical adventures around the world, from the 1960′s to today.
If you have a question for Fred Tackett, please login and post your Comment here on the blog.
Upcoming tourdate: Saturday, September 16th in Eureka Springs, Arkansas – Little Feat festival at The Auditorium! (Dr. John plays on Friday, and either Speakeasy or Charliehorse plans to play an after-show at Chelsea’s; also Vince Herman is jamming there, and Sugar Free Allstars are playing with guests, and there’s a Feat Fans Jam)
- “Little Feat guitarist Fred Tackett hails from Arkansas. That fact is written in every word he sings and plays on his solo release, “In A Town Like This”. In a musical coleslaw that combines equal parts blues, country, hillbilly, eastern, and western music, Mr. Tackett paints his soundscape with broad autumnal strokes that recalls Arkansas in August. … Mr. Tackett reprises “Honest Man” which he co- wrote with Lowell George to great effect. Listening to “Honest Man” one can hear exactly what contribution Tackett makes to the current Little Feat…. This is humid, dusty music, like that imagined as the soundtrack to a merciless Southern summer with no rain, just the promise of some.” — C. Michael Bailey @ AllAboutJazz.com
More key links for Fred Tackett:
- FredTackett.com
- Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett Acoustic Duo – Webpage about In A Town Like This
- Jambands.com “Used With Fred Tackett” by Andy Tennille, where he wanders through Amoeba Music in San Francisco, shopping and commenting on albums
- LittleFeat.net
- Listen to this 1999 radio broadcast performance from Japan with Fred Tackett and Paul Barrere on JODW-FM Tokyo! It’s streaming on Archive.org.
Here is a sample of the monumental Fred Tackett discography. He has played on decades full of diverse styles and classic records, including in his own words “a lot of weird fucking records, man”:
| Artist | Album | Year |
| Johnny Rivers | Meanwhile Back At The Whiskey A-Go-Go | 1965 |
| The 5th Dimension | Portrait | 1970 |
| Jimmy Webb | Words & Music | 1970 |
| Little Feat | Dixie Chicken | 1973 |
| Bob Dylan | Dylan | 1973 |
| Glen Campbell | Rhinestone Cowboy | 1975 |
| Kris Kristofferson | Who’s To Bless & Who’s To Blame | 1975 |
| Harry Nilsson | Sandman | 1975 | Bonnie Raitt | Home Plate | 1975 |
| Rod Stewart | Atlantic Crossing | 1975 | Jackson Browne | The Pretender | 1976 |
| Boz Scaggs | Silk Degrees | 1976 |
| Carly Simon | Another Passenger | 1976 |
| Rod Stewart | A Night On The Town | 1976 |
| Little Feat | Time Loves A Hero | 1977 |
| Gregg Allman | Allman & Woman: Two The Hard Way | 1977 |
| Glen Campbell | Southern Nights | 1977 |
| Bette Midler | Broken Blossom | 1977 |
| Bonnie Raitt | Sweet Forgiveness | 1977 |
| Leo Sayer | Thunder In My Heart | 1977 | Rod Stewart | Foot Loose & Fancy Free | 1977 |
| Eric Carmen | Change Of Heart | 1978 |
| Pointer Sisters | Energy | 1978 |
| Rod Stewart | Blondes Have More Fun | 1978 |
| Little Feat | Down On The Farm | 1979 |
| Glen Campbell | Highwayman | 1979 |
| Lowell George | Thanks I’ll Eat It Here | 1979 |
| Rickie Lee Jones | Rickie Lee Jones | 1979 |
| Kris Kristofferson | Shake Hands With The Devil | 1979 |
| Kenny Loggins | Keep The Fire | 1979 |
| Barbra Streisand | Wet | 1979 |
| Bob Dylan | Saved | 1980 |
| Dolly Parton | Dolly Dolly Dolly | 1980 |
| Little Feat | Hoy-Hoy! | 1981 |
| The Carpenters | Made In America | 1981 |
| Bob Dylan | Shot Of Love | 1981 |
| Arlo Guthrie | Power Of Love | 1981 |
| Juice Newton | Juice | 1981 |
| Ringo Starr | Stop And Smell The Roses | 1981 |
| Neil Diamond | Heartlight | 1982 |
| Lionel Richie | Lionel Richie | 1982 |
| Kenny Rogers | We’ve Got Tonight | 1983 |
| Kenny Rogers | Eyes That See In The Dark | 1983 |
| Tom Waits | Swordfishtrombones | 1983 |
| Kenny Rogers | What About Me | 1984 |
| Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton | Once Upon A Christmas | 1984 |
| Kenny Rogers | Heart Of The Matter | 1985 | Bob Seger | Like A Rock | 1986 |
| Kenny Rogers | I Prefer The Moonlight | 1987 | Little Feat | Let It Roll | 1988 |
| Joan Baez | Recently | 1988 |
| Richard Thompson | Amnesia | 1988 |
| Tom Waits | Big Time | 1988 |
| The Allman Brothers Band | Dreams | 1989 |
| Joan Baez | No Woman No Cry | 1989 |
| V. A. | Stay Awake: Interpretations of Vintage Disney Films | 1989 |
| Little Feat | Representing The Mambo | 1990 |
| Roberto Carlos | From Brazil With Love | 1990 |
| Little Feat | Shake Me Up | 1991 |
| Bob Dylan | Bootleg Series | 1991 |
| Bob Seger | The Fire Inside | 1991 |
| Travis Tritt | It’s All About To Change | 1991 |
| Willie Nelson | Across The Borderline | 1993 |
| Aaron Neville | The Grand Tour | 1993 |
| V. A. | Beat The Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson | 1994 |
| Little Feat | Ain’t Had Enough Fun | 1995 |
| Fleetwood Mac | Time | 1995 |
| Bob Seger | It’s A Mystery | 1995 |
| V. A. | Tower Of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen | 1995 |
| Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks | Orange Crate Art | 1995 |
| Little Feat | Live From Neon Park | 1996 |
| Neil Diamond | In My Lifetime | 1996 |
| Curtis Mayfield | People Get Ready: The Curtis Mayfield Story | 1996 |
| Wallflowers | Bringing Down The Horse | 1996 |
| Little Feat | Under The Radar | 1998 |
| Linda Ronstadt | We Ran | 1998 |
| Little Feat | Chinese Work Songs | 2000 |
| Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett | Live From North Cafe | 2001 |
| Little Feat | Kickin’ It At The Barn | 2003 |
| Little Feat | Down Upon The Suwannee River | 2003 |
| Fred Tackett | In A Town Like This | 2003 |
Wow!! Those records include so many of our favorite songs.
Hope you can tune-in this Tuesday for the interview with Fred Tackett on Honest Tunes Radio!
If we are able to capture a good recording of the radio show, we’ll offer a podcast mp3 and photos of the Fred Tackett sessions with music, in the future.
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May 22nd, 2006 at 11:37 AM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
Hey man, i saw that Tackett is gonna be in the studio, thats AWESOME. I wanted to ask you if there is any way when you do the concert calender that you could add that our show (Markham Hill) this Wed at George’s will be a benefit for our friend and “dance captain” Jared Hickman — all proceeds from our show will go into his pocket to pay his medical bills.
Thanks a bunch if you can get around to it.
FOJ
May 22nd, 2006 at 2:57 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
Discussion threads about the Fred Tackett interview, on other forums:
Central Plains Jamband Society forum
MOheads for the Missouri area music fans
Wakarusa Music Festival forum
Tea Leaf Green off-topic board (by the way, TLG covers several songs that Fred Tackett has performed, such as “Willin’”)
PanicFreaks – Fred Tackett Radio Interview Thread
PanicStream chat board
Little Feat message boards thread started by the mods Jim & Darcy, Feat fans from Southeast Missouri
May 22nd, 2006 at 6:45 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
hey Dgold, what a cool thing! Ask Fred if he’s gonna be adding Come Together to LF’s playlist [see if he doesn't smile and tell you about playing w/ Papa Grows Funk/Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews/ and one of the guys from Rebirth Brass Band @ The Maple leaf in New Orleans the day after JazzFest.]
You might have to nudge him that way … but I doubt it. Tell him Tipi (tee-pee) says hi.
And thanks for doing a groovy thing.
Peace,
T
May 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
Dgold:
Meyer Lansky here. I go by this name over on Panicstream and we have a good repoir with one another.
Look here…if it wouldn’t be weird and too much trouble, I would like him to elaborate if he’d like on the story-line for the song ‘Willin’. Now if you are just focusing on music from his recent years, then that will suffice. Just my two cents. Your show rocks!!!! La’Chiam..,
Peace,
Meyer Lansky
May 22nd, 2006 at 8:21 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
Friend of Dgold, a music historian from Little Rock, and producer of the Arkansongs radio show — Stephen Koch — wrote a great article about Fred Tackett in the Arkansas Times newspaper. Here are a few excerpts:
Little Rock native Fred Tackett… started out on trumpet and drums before learning the guitar. Along Ninth Street, the business/entertainment district for the capital city’s black community, he listened and subbed in bands. “The law in Little Rock,” he said, “was white people couldn’t
play in the same bands as black people, and vice versa. Of course, I was in a band with two black guys and two white guys. We just were constantly getting in trouble.”
Tackett gave fellow Hall High alum Robert Palmer, who went on to write for the New York Times and Rolling Stone, his first nightclub gig. At the beginning of Palmer’s 1995 book “Rock & Roll: An Unruly History” — a companion to a PBS series to which Palmer was chief adviser — he wrote of Tackett and another musician, “They were vastly more experienced than I was, and seldom let me forget it.” Tackett describes playing a “funky little place” on Little Rock’s outskirts with Palmer: “You had to play all the different styles. [Palmer] was pointing out how that sort of became rock ’n’ roll. Trying to make people in the bar happy. … You went through different kinds of music and amalgamated them.”
After getting “saved from probably getting arrested in Little Rock by going away to college in Texas,” Tackett gigged his way to Hawaii and met successful songwriter Jimmy Webb in a club. Webb, then 21, asked him to come to Los Angeles and join his band.
Later in the article, Tackett draws out a surprising comparison between his homes in Topanga Canyon in L.A., and little-ol’ Eureka Springs, Arkansas:
Tackett said, “I live in the country in Los Angeles, because I live in Topanga Canyon … and I moved to Arkansas to live in the city. I can walk down to the galleries and the coffee shops. Where I live in California doesn’t have anything.” …“There’s just a soulful feeling about late at night out there in the woods in Arkansas, by the river and stuff. It’s hard to pinpoint; I think we captured some of that in the music.”
May 22nd, 2006 at 9:29 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
As far as questions to ask Fred, how about starting out with questions about the Lowell George era. Then maybe he can take you through the Craig Fuller years, and now Shaun Murphy.
Fred was born in Arkansas, as you probably know; now he has moved back to Eureka Springs, AR. You may want to ask him some questions about that. Also, don’t forget to ask him about the upcoming Eureka Springs Big Time Festival September 15th & 16th with Dr. John & Little Feat.
Best Regards
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:14 PM UTC 2006n 5-22-06
rock on, daniel
You coming for Wakarusa? AHT tent this year again?