Fred Tackett
In A Town Like This
Hot Tomato Records
visit Fred on myspace
only seeing it available
on
what is referred to as
Little Feat's merchandise page
Forget that Fred Tackett plays in Little Feat, as this is an entirely different genre of music, with an entirely different feel, and utterly different instrumentation. This is Fred Tackett playing the music his son Miles grew up with in the Ozark Mountains, but before you think Country and/or Bluegrass, forgets it. This disc reflects the slower more natural rhythms of the country where one listens to the sound of the rivers, lakes, and the wind and the interaction and changes that don’t always occur, though not always on a conscious level, more a pastoral or primordial sound. This is Fred on guitar, his son Miles on cello, and an old friend, Dominic Genova, on “his beautiful 1870s German bass. Just from the instrumentation you have a feel for the great
differences between this disc and what you might have expected from a member of Little Feat, but that does not mean the music is lacking an intensity it is just something so completely different that at first it is shocking, but it is also a good exercise in learning to discard expectation and see how it can trick and fool you, leading to disappointment. When there shouldn’t be any if you just accept it on its own terms and values. A beautiful gem, with some wonderful acoustic playing in a quiet and bucolic setting that is rarely heard in this cacophonous time.