The origins for this mashup started with the idea of doing a cover of the Stephen Stills tune, “Love The One You’re With”, using a different rhythmic groove. It started out with a Bo Diddley beat and evolved into a Little Feat / Richie Hayward groove, along the lines of Lowell George’s ‘Two Trains Runnin’. My fondness for Little Feat goes back to meeting them in North Hollywood during their Alley Rehearsal days, around 1978-79.
Realizing I wasn’t going to be handling drums, I figured I’d find a groove example in the YouTube universe, and have a drummer copy the feel. I came across a live track from the 1990s of Little Feat performing Two Trains, of course sans Lowell, who had passed on in 1979.
The live track had the band jamming on the intro for a minute or so and thought if i could transfer the track into my recording software, I’d play along to see if the idea could work. But after a few edits, I had enough to play the Stills song in its entirety.
After making a few changes to the Stills tune to make it work with the Little Feat jam, I recruited Phil Bunch to play percussion, Dave Batti for bass, and I added, guitar, keys, horns and vocals.
About the Players