Dixie Chicken
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Album Summary
Dixie Chicken came rolling out of the Record Plant in Los Angeles in 1973, landing on Warner Bros. Records like a slow-burning freight train that nobody could stop. It was Little Feat's third studio album, produced by the band themselves alongside the steady hand of Ted Templeman, and honey, these sessions caught something rare — a group of musicians so locked in together that the tape practically glows. Lowell George was leading this outfit with a vision that refused to stay in any one lane, and what came out of those sessions was a record that breathed swamp funk, country soul, rock and roll fire, and California ease all at the same time, like nothing else being made in that era.
Reception
- The album climbed to number 41 on the Billboard 200, marking a meaningful commercial step forward for a band that had been criminally underappreciated through their first two records.
- Critical reception wrapped its arms around Dixie Chicken with genuine warmth, with reviewers zeroing in on the band's extraordinary ensemble playing and Lowell George's gifts as both a songwriter and a slide guitarist.
- Dixie Chicken became the band's most commercially successful album to date, pushing Little Feat out of the underground and into the conversation with the finest rock acts of the early seventies.
Significance
- Dixie Chicken stands as a landmark of genre fusion, weaving rock, funk, blues, and country into a single cohesive statement that would cast a long shadow over Southern rock and roots music for decades to come.
- Lowell George's slide guitar work throughout this album — fluid, soulful, and utterly his own — represents one of the most distinctive instrumental voices the rock and roll era ever produced, and this record is where that voice rang out the clearest.
- The album helped crystallize a distinctly Californian roots aesthetic in the early seventies, one that honored the grit of the American South while carrying the looseness and sophistication of the West Coast scene.
Samples
- Fat Man In The Bathtub — sampled by several hip-hop producers drawn to its deep pocket groove, representing one of the more notable sampling touchpoints from this album's catalog.
Tracklist
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A1 Dixie Chicken 149
3:55
-
A2 Two Trains 95
3:06
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A3 Roll Um Easy 115
2:30
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A4 On Your Way Down 122
5:31
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A5 Kiss It Off 129
2:56
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B1 Fool Yourself 77
3:10
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B2 Walkin All Night —
3:35
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B3 Fat Man In The Bathtub 87
4:29
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B4 Juliette 121
3:20
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B5 Lafayette Railroad 119
3:40
Artist Details
Little Feat is one of the most soulful, funky, and utterly original American rock bands to ever come out of Los Angeles, forming back in 1969 under the visionary leadership of the late, great Lowell George, whose slide guitar work and gritty songwriting blended rock, blues, R&B, country, and New Orleans funk into something that just couldn't be put in a box. They never quite got the mainstream radio love they deserved, but musicians and serious music lovers knew the truth — albums like Dixie Chicken and Feats Don't Fail Me were nothing short of masterpieces, dripping with groove and Southern-fried soul. Little Feat stands as one of the great unsung treasures of the American rock era, a band that influenced everyone from Bonnie Raitt to the Grateful Dead, and whose music still feels like a warm night in New Orleans with a cold drink in your hand.
