Q: What has never changed in Little Feat's history that's still in evidence on the new record?
A: We used to describe Little Feat as "think of Dixieland players and how their music sounds like people having conversations." There's an element of chaos. The thread is a genre of music, this mixing and matching  in a second line kind of thing. The conversation is not so hard to follow.
Now how do you go back as many times as us and keep it interesting? We pulled l in guests. (In picking performers) it was not about age but about what you play.   An album should be easy to listen to. The people who engineered the production, (producer) Mac McAnally, Jimmy Buffett funding it. It all allowed us to do out thing.
What I was confident about was what I could bring to the table. I was very comfortable in the recording environment, when you're in a place that's comfortable and you can hear one another.

Q: You revisit several Feat classics like "Time Loves a Hero"  and "Sailin' Shoes" and you throw in a  few covers, but what made you turn to songs by outsiders, specifically Al Anderson ("Something in the Water") and Will Kimbrough ("Champion of the World")?
A: I first heard "Something in the Water" in L.A. I called Mac and told him about this killer tune and we were immediately thinking Bob Seger would be perfect. Thankfully Bob agreed. Mac and I talked about the idea of recording other songs and sometimes these things hit you with no rhyme or reason. We're not looking for hit records.

Q: And the covers?
A: We always had that affinity for New Orleans and  we wanted to do "Don't Ya Just Know It." Jimmy requested "See You Later Alligator." We're not known for doing outisde compositions but this is the best way the best way to express (appreciation for the) influences in a an industry we love and hate. "The Weight," Dylan and the Band - we wanted to say we're not only writers.

Q: Your liner notes trace this back to conversations with Jimmy Buffett in 2003 and then some activity a year later. How long did it really take to do this?
A: As with any project it took time - roughly nine years since we had the first idea,   four  years of that effort had to do with lining up the guests, but that was all a little too complicated. When Jimmy and I and the stars aligned, he made a valid point, do it like ""License to Chill." We're available (to record live) or else we'll give them the files (to record over). Dave Matthews utilized 18 vocal recordings on "Fat Man," went on "Letterman" the next day and had lost his voice. When we heard what he did, we knew this was a guy who takes his part seriously - his heart was in the right place with Little Feat.
Dave had wanted to do "Willin'," and Chris Robinson had done "Willin'" in a Black Crowes' encores. But we already had Brooks & Dunn doing it. So we asked Chris 'are you interested in doing 'Oh, Atlanta"?

Q: Brooks & Dunn are the only country acts you a have on the record.
A: I have had a lot of people ask "why Brooks & Dunn?" Out of all the people on the record, they were the ones we knew the least. But how many records do you listen to where there''s a surprise? Their voices made the record more esoteric.
Q: Since the death of Lowell George, you have tried different singers, had a bit of sales success in the late '80s and found a great lead singer in Shaun Murphy. How do you keep it from being a Lowell George tribute band?
A: Without Lowell, the sound was still there.  Little Feat is interesting because of who we are as a band.
When we began, Lowell and I would talk a lot about the music and what we wanted to fo. Say you listen to "Lil' Red Rooster" by the Rolling Stones. OK, that's cool, but then you check out where it came from - and then show where the connections are rather than just do the cover. That's the beauty of what has transpired with Little Feat."