Despite recorded evidence that seems to suggest differently, the late ‘70s weren’t a particularly productive nor happy time for the members of Little Feat.

Before 1977, the band released five albums, each one of them stunningly distinctive and unique works of art, but changing lifestyles and musical tastes started to intervene. The unified approach that made Little Feat one of the most interesting bands in the world started to fracture. Cocaine played a significant role, but bandleader Lowell George started to feel ostracized by his own band as they started to move in the direction of progressive jazz.

I saw the band live quite a bit around this time, and I have a distinct memory of Lowell George leaving the stage as the band launched into “Day at the Dog Races”, only to reappear mid-song with a fire extinguisher, and then a pair of wire cutters to clip the strings on Paul Barrere’s guitar! I thought it was incredibly funny at the time, but he certainly made his point. The album containing that song (1977’s “Time Loves a Hero”) had little input from George and the record suffered for that. 

To stay active with music that reflected his own tastes, George went to work on his solo side project, and also started to do production work. He produced “Shakedown Street” for the Grateful Dead (meh), but the project that best reflected George’s musical acumen, even more than his own solo album, was Valerie Carter’s “Just a Stone’s Throw Away”.

George shared production credits with George Massenburg and Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire), but his biggest input was the material he provided. While “Time Loves a Hero” has only two tracks credited to George as songwriter, “Just a Stone’s Throw Away” has four, all of them new. Better yet, the band consisted of a wish list of L.A.’s best session musicians, including Jeff Porcaro, Chuck Rainey, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt some of Earth, Wind and Fire and most of Little Feat.

All of the above is heartening, but none of it would matter if Valerie Carter were not a spectacular interpretive artist. She clearly stays in control while channeling the supportive skills of George and company, including a stunning update of The Five Stairsteps’ 1970 hit, “Ooh Child”. Her take on George and John Sebastian’s “Face of Appalachia” is definitive, while the title track sounds more like Little Feat than the band itself does on “Time Loves a Hero.” The two songs she co-wrote with Lowell George are better than those he supplied for that album and the closing track, “Back to Blue Some More” is a lyrical update of an old Little Feat song called “Texas Rose Café.” For Little Feat fans suffering from withdrawal, “Just a Stone’s Throw Away” was soothing medication.

Carter seemed to have every qualification to be a superstar in her own right, but friends said that she lacked the self-centered personality required to deal with the machinations of the business. Her kindly nature allowed the album sessions to flourish, with each musician bringing the best they had to offer in service of the album. In most cases, albums that feature a backing vocalist as the center of attention are spotty affairs, but “Just a Stone’s Throw Away” is unified and seamless.    

If somebody told me that Little Feat hired a female vocalist and this was the product, I would have believed it. Both Valerie Carter and Lowell George seem to be in their element, making music the best way they know how, without veering off course or straining for commercial approval. 1976-77 marked an era when music reached an apex of ‘slickness’, with every note polished to a sheen.

The punk movement would make this album feel obsolete within months of its release, but hindsight brings it back into clear focus, making it easier to appreciate as the masterpiece that it is, while also providing clues as to what might have been had Lowell George survived beyond 1979.

Featured Tracks:

Ooh Child" (used in the 1979 movie Over the Edge)

Ringing Doorbells In The Rain

Heartache

Face of Appalachia

So, So, Happy

A Stone's Throw Away

Cowboy Angel

City Lights

Back to Blue Some More

June 1977 – Billboard Charted #182