Photo Credit: Fletcher Moore

Little Feat have unveiled a new single and official lyrical video for “Bluegrass Pines,” a co-write from late Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and the band’s own Bill Payne. The track, which features guests Molly Tuttle on guitar, and Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams lending backing vocals, arrives as a final preview ahead of the veteran ensemble’s 17th studio LP, Strike Up the Band, due in full tomorrow, Friday, May 9. 

“Bluegrass Pines” highlights the relationship between the group’s co-founder and keyboardist, Payne, and the Dead’s wordsmith, Hunter, to present a poetically accentuated narrative that strikes the very best of both artists’ skill sets. Payne takes the lead, seizing the song’s descriptive flow supported by Scott Sharrard (slide and electric guitar), Kenny Gradney (bass), Sam Clayton (percussion), Fred Tackett (mandolin and guitar), Tony Leone (drums) and guests. 

The track establishes a big band sound, with the quick trill of instruments and a mood of Romani folk that begs for a skirt-twirling embrace far from the title’s suggested bluegrass lean. Midway through, the tempo decelerates to emphasize the lyrical dispatch from Payne, and the Hunter effect, description-rich stanzas ripple a convergence of music and nature:

Deep in the Bluegrass Forest at Midnight

Moon turned down as soft as candlelight

Mandolins stutter & banjos frail

While the last electric stars grow pale

The patter of twilight guitars creep                                            

From under the bracken where they sleep

Tones of strings a full choir of bullfrogs crooning

“When Robert Hunter and I began writing, he usually sent me the lyrics first,” recalls Payne.   “After several times of doing it this way, he suggested I send him the music first. I had a short instrumental entitled ‘Banjo Wanderings.’ I was amazed at how this small clip inspired the expansive and wonderful lyrics he called ‘Bluegrass Pines.’”

He continues, “The music I gave him essentially covered only the chorus. Everything else was the result of his imagination and my mining of the melody and chords from the scenery he painted. He asked at one point through e-mail—the only way we ever communicated—if I knew who Lash LaRue was, and I told him yes, he used a whip to go after the desperados rather than use a gun.”

“I love this song and its influence on those who performed it. I love the intelligence and spirit that Molly Tuttle, with grace and beauty, created, through her legato acoustic guitar lines with Scott’s soaring slide, a dance of kinetic magic. Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams’ vocals, powerful, and at times angelic, provided the perfect tapestry for me to sing against. I thank Robert Hunter for his gift.”   

In support of their latest studio album, Little Feat will perform at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. tonight, Thursday, May 8. The concert will be livestreams on nugs.net at 8 p.m. E.T. Don’t miss Little Feat live, to purchase tickets visit www.littlefeat.net/tour. 

Watch the lyrical music video for “Bluegrass Pines” below. 

1. 4 Days of Heaven 3 Days of Work  
2. Bayou Mama  
3. Shipwrecks  
4. Midnight Flight  
5. Too High To Cut My Hair  
6. When Hearts Fall  
7. Strike Up The Band (feat. Larkin Poe)  
8. Bluegrass Pines (feat. Molly Tuttle, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams)
9. Disappearing Ink  
10. Love and Life (Never Fear)  
11. Dance a Little  
12. Running Out of Time with the Blues  
13. New Orleans Cries When She Sings