Rock and Roll legends Little Feat are bringing “The Last Farewell Tour” to the Perinton Amphitheatre in Fairport on Saturday, May 30. Joined by special guest Molly Tuttle the evening is sure to be a rustic stomp of rock, blues, and honky-tonk jamming.
NYS Music checked in with Bill Payne during the group’s extended tour to talk about what this musical finale means for Little Feat, his future creative pursuits, and what fans can expect in Fairport on May 30.
“Well, a couple of things people can expect on this tour. We’re diving deep into the catalog because of the finality of it … which is a little loose, to be honest with you. I mean, this tour is going to play out over a couple of years.
But within the context of the show, we’re doing acoustic music as well as the electric stuff. The last little tour we did, I was given a slot while the crew was tearing down the stage, moving from the acoustic portion of the concert. I played “Gringo” the other night, for example, which I hadn’t played in 100 years.”
With a catalog that spans over five decades, nothing is off limits and fans can expect the unexpected, from rare cuts and classics like “Dixie Chicken,” and “Willin,’” to covers of Little Feat’s contemporaries, all in rotation for the evening’s setlist.
“As far as I’m concerned anything goes. I think that it ought to and will extend beyond Little Feat’s catalog as well. So, if we want to play some Grateful Dead music, or The Band, or Taylor Swift’s music, ha-ha, we’ll see where it goes. But you understand, it’s just opening the book, and for me, it’s like, well, what have we not done? That might be fun to try, you know?
That’s the essence of being open about the approach of giving yourself a chance to possibly fail. There is no failure with certain crowds, and I think our crowd is one of them, Grateful Dead crowds, same thing. They appreciate the fact that you’re up there extending the boundaries a little bit which is fun for them as well as for us.”
As a musical bonus, singer-songwriter and bluegrass queen Molly Tuttle will join the band in Fairport for the second of her two appearances on “The Last Farewell Tour.”
Payne continues, “You know, to have Molly Tuttle at this gig. My gosh, what a what a wonderful musician and human being she is. So, we’re pleased to have her. She’ll join us I hope, on a couple of things, and we’ll see how it rides. But we hope throughout the next couple of years, to be expanding the guest list of people that join us for this, this 55, 56-year journey we’ve had.”
While his upcoming “retirement” from the road is a fast approaching horizon, Payne has several creative outlets that will keep him active, including recording a backlog of music, pursuing his photography, and preparing his memoir, Carnival Souls, for publication.
“The avenue of being creative is going to be wide open. In fact, oddly enough, when I accepted the fact that we were going to call this “The Last Farewell Tour,” which I wasn’t buying into at first; I thought, well, look, I’m 77 years old, I know Dylan’s still out there doing it and Paul McCartney, there’s guys in their 80s that are playing. I mean, Sam Clayton is well up in age and he’s still able to play. But the focus that brought to the realm of what we’re doing, it surprised me a little bit. I enjoyed the fact that now you can really sit there and go, well, what do I want to do? We have good managers. We have people that can play the catalog. We’ve built up a great audience; people want to see us and hear us. What do we want to do?
It’s a wide-open book again. I mean regarding how to implement all these creative endeavors that are presenting themselves. I mean, I’ve got fifteen Robert Hunter songs nobody’s heard. I’ve got nine or ten songs that Paul Muldoon and I wrote that nobody’s ever heard. I’m going to go and cut a solo record with some folks. Last night I did piano night in New Orleans, tonight I’m playing with Grahame Lesh who is Phil’s son at the Troy Theater. Tomorrow there’s a private showing for Little Feat the Documentary at the Toulouse Theater in New Orleans, with invited guests and what not. Thursday, I’m playing in Dead Feat with Anders Osborne, Kenny Gradney, Fred Tackett, so retirement feels pretty good.”
In Bill Payne’s case retirement means more of doing the things that he’s always done; write songs, collaborate, and share his inspired talents with the world. He has plenty left to say and we will certainly be there for it.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever fully shut it down. I don’t know if it was a sports figure that was talking about it the other day, but what was said was that retirement does not mean what it used to mean. That’s what I’m starting to think.
But having the avenue of expanding a life of inquiry, of meeting interesting people, of talking to people like yourself, whose work I really admire that’s a plus, man. If I couldn’t do that, I would miss that.”
Listen to the entire interview with Bill Payne on the Talk from the Rock Room podcast.
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