Little Feat - Sailin' Shoes (Ultra Analog, Half-speed Mastering)
ORDER LIMITED TO ONE ITEM PER CUSTOMER
Lowell George - guitar, lead (all but "Cat Fever") and backing vocals, harmonica, baritone saxophone, drum machine [click here to see more vinyl featuring Lowell George]
Bill Payne - Hammond organ, backing and lead vocals ("Cat Fever"), Wurlitzer electric piano, piano, accordion
Roy Estrada - bass, backing vocals
Richie Hayward - drums, backing vocals, percussion
Milt Holland - percussion on "Easy to Slip" and "Trouble"
Sneaky Pete Kleinow - pedal steel guitar on "Willin'" and "Texas Rose Café"
Debbie Lindsey - backing vocals on "Cold Cold Cold" and "Sailin' Shoes"
Ron Elliott - rhythm guitar on "A Apolitical Blues"
1 LP, gatefold jacket
Limited numbered edition
Original analog Master tape : YES
Gain 2™ Ultra Analog
Half-speed Mastering
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : RTI
Label : MOFI
Original Label : Warner Bros
Recorded late 1971 in Los Angeles at Amigo Sounds, Sunset Sound and TTG Studios
Engineered by Donn Landee
Produced by Ted Templeman
Remastered by Rob LoVerde
Originally released in 1972
Reissued in 2009
Tracks:
Side A :
- Easy To Slip
- Cold, Cold, Cold
- Trouble
- Tripe Face Boogie
- Willin'
- A Apolitical Blues
Side B :
- Sailin' Shoes
- Teenage Nervous Breakdown
- Got No Shadow
- Cat Fever
- Texas Rose Cafe
Reviews :
"Little Feat's debut may have been a great album but it sold so poorly, they had to either broaden their audience or, in all likelihood, they'd be dropped from Warner. So, Sailin' Shoes is a consciously different record from its predecessor - less raw and bluesy, blessed with a varied production and catchier songs. That still doesn't make it a pop record, since Little Feat, particularly in its first incarnation, was simply too idiosyncratic, earthy and strange for that. It is, however, an utterly thrilling, individual blend of pop, rock, blues and country, due in no small part to a stellar set of songs from Lowell George. If anything, his quirks are all the more apparent here than they were on the debut, since Ted Templeman's production lends each song its own character, plus his pen was getting sharper. George truly finds his voice on this record, with each of his contributions sparkling with off-kilter humor, friendly surreal imagery and humanity, and he demonstrates he can authoritatively write anything from full-throttle rock & roll ("Teenage Nervous Breakdown"), sweet ballads ("Trouble," a sublimely reworked "Willin'"), skewered folk ("Sailin' Shoes"), paranoid rock ("Cold, Cold, Cold") and blues ("A Apolitical Blues") and, yes, even hooky mainstream rock ("Easy to Slip," which should have been the hit the band intended it to be). That's not to discount the contributions of the other members, particularly Bill Payne and Richie Hayward's "Tripe Face Boogie," which is justifiably one of the band's standards, but the thing that truly stuns on Sailin' Shoes is George's songwriting and how the band brings it to a full, colorful life. Nobody could master the twists and turns within George's songs better than Little Feat, and both the songwriter and his band are in prime form here." AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ultra Analog™ : The GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ Series stems from the use of the Gain 2 system, mastered at half speed from the original master tapes where possible, capturing and uncovering as before undiscovered sonic information.
Half-speed mastering. In half-speed mastering, the whole process is slowed down to half of the original speed. A typical 33 1/3 rpm record is cut at 16 2/3 rpm. The source material is also slowed down (reducing the pitch in the process) meaning the final record will still sound normal when played back. Slowing the whole process down allows more time, which means the end result sounds better and is more efficient — allowing engineering to minimize the effects of inherent limitations within the vinyl format. The result is a more accurate and more open high-frequency response in the half speed vinyl when compared with a normal speed recording.
Ratings :
AllMusic : 5 / 5 , Discogs : 4,23 / 5