Little Feat celebrated the 45th anniversary of the commercial release of Waiting for Columbus (Warner Bros., 1978) in 2023 with the Rhino Records release of the 8-CD Waiting for Columbus Super Deluxe Edition a year earlier in anticipation of the event. Between these two releases was the 2-CD Waiting for Columbus Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros., 2002).
Why the 45th and not the golden anniversary?
As of this writing, the last original members, Bill Payne, Kenny Gradney, and Sam Clayton Clayton are 76, 75 and 73, respectively, while Fred Tackett, who has orbited the band since the beginning, just turned 80. That makes 2028 look pretty far off in dog years. So the band, Warner Bros., and Rhino struck while the iron was hot.
On March 16 and 17, 2022, Little Feat performed two shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium with special guests for release as a 2-CD set and DVD, both enjoying their public release in August 2025. From the opening of “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” it is obvious this will be no rote performance. Special guests and the Midnight Ramble Horns (with new charts) give it away that this is a special occasion worthy of the friendly, warm climes of Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
This recording is not so much a recreation of the original as a reimagining of its possibilities. With the sharp edges sanded smooth, producers homogenized the band’s sound into a Las Vegas sonic wall of carefully executed material both familiar and brand new. Sometimes changes are subtle, as on “All That You Dream.” Other times, previously introverted songs become concert stoppers, like the 12-minute exposition on “Day or Night” (sporting a corrosive Fred Tackett guitar solo) and the interpolation of Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call” into an incendiary “Apolitical Blues.”
The guest artists' performances vary in quality. Eric Church’s vocals on “Dixie Chicken” are initially weak, warming up as the song progresses. Jamey Johnson’s “Willin’” transforms the road song into a deep south lament. Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr lends his strange Dixie legitimacy effectively to “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” while Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna waxes poetic on “Sailin’ Shoes” which is given a facelift to a NOLA second line level by the Midnight Ramble Horns. Bettye LaVette kills on the bonus “On Your Way Down.” As a bonus song, the band reprises “Dixie Chicken,” featuring Tommy Emmanuel on vocals and guitar, in a performance better than the named version. Completely transmogrified, Emmanuel and Tackett play a transcendent solos. It is a disc highlight along with “Day or Night” and “Apolitical Blues.”
This is not a uniformly perfect performance, but contains some interesting reinterpretations of this brilliant 50-year-old rock canon.