Little Feat

The companion volume to Hot Tomato/RedEye's Raw Tomatos, Vol. 1, Ripe Tomatos, Vol. 1 contains a robust selection of live Little Feat rarities from throughout their career -- both with Lowell George and their years without him. Like its predecessor, it suffers from its all-inclusiveness; many Feat fans love it all, but there are a select group, just as passionate, that only love George. By treating both groups as the same, these discs suffer. They flow well, in and of themselves, but once the George material runs out halfway through the first disc, it's hard not to wish that each era was given its own volume. That said, the music here, like the music on its companion piece, is uniformly excellent, illustrating exactly why the band has always been considered live titans. But, as before, the transcendent material is with George -- not just because he was a genius songwriter and guitarist, but because the band was grittier, earthier, funkier back then. There's nothing here as revelatory as the demos on Raw Tomatos, but live versions of "Teenage Nervous Breakdown," "Cold Cold Cold," "Dixie Chicken," "Hamburger Midnight," and "Apolitical Blues" (featuring Lowell saying "Howlin' Wolf invented rock & roll"), are priceless. So, you take what you can get, when you can get it; even if you wish you were getting more, there's no way you'd part with what you have. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide