Straight from the Heart - Part 2 - With Bill Payne of Little Feat

Welcome to this week's episode of #ForWhatItsWorthwithBlakeMelnick, part 2 of my interview, #StraightfromtheHeart with my guest, the great #BillPayne from #LittleFeet.

In part one, Bill and I discussed the recent tour, his early musical influences, the renewed power of music in our tumultuous times, and his short lived career as a drummer

In this episode, Bill and I pick up from where we left off and do a deep dive into the art and craft of songwriting, the growth of the band, the joy of playing together, the importance of legacy as part of the evolution of the band, and what's next for #LittleFeet ...For What it's Worth.

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The intro music for this episode, "Bible Thumping Sundays"  is written and performed by our current artist in residence, @DouglasCameron. You can find out more about Douglas by visiting our show blog and by listening to our episode, #TheOldGuitar

Music following the show break and concluding the episode is by #LittleFeat recorded live at the historic #MooreTheatre in Seattle Washington.

A special thanks to @DennisMcNally and @BillPayne for their generosity of spirit and time without which this episode, and the ones that follow, would not have been possible ...Hanging on to the Good Times! - Thank you Amigos!

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Part 2 - Straight from the Heart

[00:00:00] Blake Melnick: Well, welcome to this week's episode of For What It's Worth, I'm your host, Blake Knick, and this is part two of my interview. Straight from the Heart with my guest, the Great Bill Payne from Little Feet. In part one, Bill and I discussed the recent tour. His early musical influences the renewed power of music in our tumultuous times and his short lived career as a drummer

[00:00:53] in this episode, Bill and I pick up from where we left off and do a deep dive into the art and craft of songwriting, [00:01:00] the growth of the band, the joy of playing together, the importance of legacy as part of the evolution of the band and what's next for little feet, for what it's worth. 

[00:01:37] We have a series on our show called pass the jam. The whole idea behind it is to try to connect, emerging musicians with experienced musicians and have them learn from one another and hopefully open the possibilities of future collaborations, whether that be live or on a record or something like that.

[00:01:52] And I'm pleased to say that's already starting. So it's really neat to see, but a lot of what we talk about, in this series, it's [00:02:00] really the musicians talking to the musicians, I'm the facilitator. So a lot of that interview is two musicians, one who's holding the jam and about to pass it onto the next one.

[00:02:09] And they discuss, their influences and, their approach to music. And one of the key questions that they always start to zero in on is. The art and craft of music, how much of the music , that they like, or that they record or produce is craft and how much of it is just inspirational, free flowing.

[00:02:29]Bill Payne: It just comes out. So I wanted to ask you that question. 

[00:02:33] The craft is always hovering in the foreground or the background. It never goes away. You need it. I'll put it to you in this fashion. I had a guy who was a driver that was taking me some place. And, he said he wrote music and, he had to drive to, earn a living, but I said, well, have you ever thought of, dealing with scales?

[00:02:53] Bill Payne: For example, he goes, oh, no, I don't know. I'd wanna do that. And I said, I'm not talking about reading. I'm just talking about if you're in key of D, you know where [00:03:00] you are, if you can, key of A, or key of A flat, you know, maneuver those keys. He says, well, not really. And I said, I'm gonna tell you what I think you're going through in your head, which is, if you start to learn that stuff, it's gonna take away your creativity.

[00:03:11] Correct? He goes, yeah, I go back to vocabulary. I said, considered adding to your vocabulary, not taking something away - I never thought of that? I said, well, neither did I, but it took me a long time , to figure that out which is why I'm sharing it with you. Yeah. So it is the same with the craft and inspiration.

[00:03:31] Inspiration hits a wall where you have nothing to fill into, you know, it's here in your head, but  can't come out through your fingers or through your instrument. Right. That's where you need that little extra added, craftmanship or learning. Which adds to that vocabulary.

[00:03:48] And then that facility to improvise

[00:03:51] es un buen lío Nos tenemos a nosotros mismos, it's a fine mess we got ourselves into, how do you wanna express that? You want to express it [00:04:00] in Spanish on y va, on y va you know, Allez, Allez I don't know any French, but I learned that when I was over in south of France recording with Eddie Mitchell, it's about communication. Being open to all that is in itself is inspirational.

[00:04:15] The practice is over when you're sitting down. Well, I'll share , 1 little tidbit. That really helped me with Robert Hunter, for example, I wrote 20 songs with him. At least 10 with Paul Muldune. Who's a Pulitzer prize winning poet, with my son, couple with Charlie Star from Blackberry Smoke

[00:04:33] A long list of people I've been writing with, since writing with Hunter. What I do is I sit down with a zoom recorder. So this is before zoom meetings and whatnot, because we're talking about our memory, well, I don't know what I did  five minutes ago? I don't remember. I don't know why 15 minutes.

[00:04:48] About 15 seconds ago. Sometimes if you're really in the moment, you don't know

[00:04:55] five minutes from now. Can you remember that lick? Right with the recorder I can[00:05:00] and so, as I'm sitting there reading the lyrics and coming up with little vignettes to approach what I want to do, that's how I wrote 20 songs. And more with people was just, adding to where my memory would fail me.

[00:05:14] It's very, very helpful. The end result is really what you're looking for and how you get there. It really doesn't matter. It's like playing music. If you read music, does that make you a better musician? No. If you don't read music, does that have problems? Not necessarily. Usually not.

[00:05:29] Right. It's all about, if I go, can you go? And I go, yeah. sing me that that until I get it. Okay, cool. That's where it is. So I also teach if I'm doing something like, representing the Mombo very complicated piece. Yeah. I love that piece. I teach it to the band in sections. Right, they're not gonna learn it from A to Z.

[00:05:52] They would never get it. I mean, some guys would Fred Tackett probably could do it, but now I wanna make sure they get like, here's section one. [00:06:00] Section two, which is a little different from one that has the antecedents for it. That's where we connect with the Grateful Dead too. Right? 

[00:06:06] , you know, I'm throwing out a lot of tips here. 

[00:06:08] Blake Melnick: This is great because this is exactly what we're trying to, instill , in the audience and the guests on the show is this whole notion of collaboration , if somebody can take something from what you've said and say, wow, you know, I've never thought about that before.

[00:06:20] I'm gonna apply that to the process that I'm already using. This is a really helpful thing. And we found that, some of the more experienced musicians that have been on the show, With the emerging artists, they're after the big hit, I need to get that number one record or that number one hit in order to make a career in the music business.

[00:06:36] And the more experienced guys that we've had in the show, and some of them have made it and have fallen off, but have managed to make a career in the business, writing for television, for example, composing for shows and doing all kinds of different things, working as DJs on the radio. , so they're giving the younger, musician more to think about in terms of a possible career, in music, which is [00:07:00] something that they want, that they love.

[00:07:01] If they don't get that number one record, you know, cuz that's a rarity and let's be honest. 

[00:07:06] Bill Payne: Well, I mean, if you can write a song for, Whoever the top artist is, or whomever you think might be there, you gotta go through a ton of gatekeepers to get that music to that person. Right. It's really a fool's errand to think you're gonna write a hit song these days. Right. It shouldn't discourage anybody from doing it, but be practical about it too. I wanna be a concert pianist. well, great. You like listen to Horawitz okay. Fine. Or do whomever listening to them doesn't mean you can play it. Right.

[00:07:34] But asking the question is really the first step to finding the solution. Right, right. Wanna do this? Well, the question is, well, okay. , how do you do that? If you wanna write hit songs, it's not even a matter of how do you write them? I mean, , there's a format that's pretty tried and true.

[00:07:53] But really. Are you writing rock and roll. You're riding a country hit. Is just all this stuff that just clouds the issue. [00:08:00] But at the same time begins to eliminate what it is you want to do. What is your perception of what a hit record is?

[00:08:06] For example, is it something that Dave Matthews can come out and play live for people? Does that mean the hit record or is it something you're gonna hear on the radio? This lady Gaga singing it. Right. You know, I don't know. I mean, , you spend your couple bucks and take your chances 

[00:08:24] I think it's an odd way to approach it. And this is from a guy that by the way, has wanted to write and tried to write hit songs. Mm-hmm the song Oh Atlanta Lowell goes, you can't write a hit song. I go, I can, can, can

[00:08:42] My idea of a hit song at the time was, oh, Atlanta, right? I said, I'll hit the chorus around the course hit run, however many seconds into the song. Whoa, Atlanta, that kind of thing. So it is a really good song. It's a great [00:09:00] song. When I played it for the band, I went really. Oh, okay. it grew on. All right. Hey, listen, we're playing it.

[00:09:09] Whether you like it or not. how's that, 

[00:09:11] Blake Melnick: So how does the band, I mean, you're all such amazing musicians and part of what I love about little feet too, is that you also have your side gigs. , what kids nowadays called a side hustle, but you're all recording, with different musicians and on different records, you've played with some of the greatest musicians in the world.

[00:09:29] How do you, as a band, like, what does your process as a band with all of these premier musicians to actually compose and write the songs and the music? 

[00:09:39] What's your process? 

[00:09:41] Was the process to writing that or I'm not quite sure. Yeah. So if you're, if you, you know, you're you wanna release a new little feed album, maybe I'm not asking the right way.

[00:09:49] You wanna release a new album, you've come up with a bunch of songs. , are you the songwriter? Do you come up with the songs and then, give it out to the band and everybody kind of, I think the bass should sound like this. And [00:10:00] I think like, yeah, that's that kind of that process, maybe you don't use a process?

[00:10:05] Bill Payne: I think a process is important. What I try and do is I encourage everybody that wants to write to write. So do I have enough material? I've got enough material to probably cover three albums, but it shouldn't be just about me. It should be about. Scott Sherrard, Tony Leone. 

[00:10:23] Blake Melnick: Sure.

[00:10:23] Bill Payne: Kenny Gradney, who came up with the baseline for Time Loves a Hero. Fred, Tackett's wonderful writer. Sam Clayton got some ideas for him that we're actively pursuing. So in the process, once you have this song, say it's one of my tunes yeah. I'll go in and say, Hey look, I hear it this way, but then they might come in, like they did on Rooster Rag, Paul and Fred, and they went check this out was like acoustic guitar and mandolin.

[00:10:48] Mm-hmm . They just came up with something that flowed really easy. So keeping an open mind about arrangements is fine. The more complex the arrangements, such as we were talking about, 

[00:10:58] Blake Melnick: Representing the [00:11:00] Mambo 

[00:11:00] Bill Payne: Or red stream liner, or those kind of songs that like I write, things become a little more narrow because , there's less room to Wego to

[00:11:11] baseline for Red Streamliner. You can go off of that, but if that's where , the pulse is and everything else, well, then they gotta learn that lick and what falls in and around it. I learned a new term last night and I don't know if I can remember what that it's called, but it's about songs that kids listen to that are, oh, yacht, yacht songs, I guess, or yacht, yacht music.

[00:11:34] Music that from the seventies or eighties, that have a lot of vocals and stuff on it. And red stream liner was one of those kind of songs. Doobie Brothers have a lot of tunes like that. I said, well, guess who's singing the background. 

[00:11:46] Yeah. Mike McDonald, Pat Simmons. So that doesn't surprise me, but it was a 58%.

[00:11:53] Anyway, I try to learn what I learned. 

[00:11:55] Blake Melnick: So it's a building block approach with you guys and you sounds like you're very collaborative and [00:12:00] openminded enough to say, Hey, I never thought of that, but that sounds really good. Let's put that in there. Yeah. 

[00:12:05] Bill Payne: Yeah. The only thing in general, I would say, I think it's a Truism that, we talk ourselves out of far more things than we talk ourselves into. , like, oh gosh, I wanna play piano on a band. Well, how many people in the world play piano? Why would I even approach doing it? You know? Well, that's a good question.

[00:12:21] But I think Brahams, I always called it the footsteps of giants and question he asked was, well, can I compete with Beethoven? Mozart, Bach and Hyden. Yes, he could. Right. So we were starting Little Feat can we compete with Bob Dylan, The Band, Leon Russell, the Beatles. I don't care who it is.

[00:12:44] Rolling stones. Can we have a conversation with, in there that allows people to hear any of those bands and hear a Little Feat song go? Yeah, that's cool. And the answer was yes. Yeah. It was a gutsy call to make I think that trepidation that some people feel not [00:13:00] all, but for those that feel that trepidation, I think it's a healthy thing.

[00:13:05] You don't want to let the doubt, keep you from doing what you need to do, but be aware of what you're up against. That's all. What do you hold is a high bar and you don't have to meet it, but, are you doing something to be honest with yourself about what you're doing, the audience is an ultimate arbitrator with that, by the way.

[00:13:23] Blake Melnick: Yes. 

[00:13:24] Bill Payne: Cause if you don't have the audience, then enjoy in the confines of your living room or your music room. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's the fulfillment you get from the arts and from drawing something or from, enjoying art. It only enriches our lives. You don't have to be tortured by it. 

[00:13:39] Blake Melnick: No, that's right. And I agree with you. I think that is the beauty of art. It's very personal for the artist. And I believe it was Robert Browning that said, A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for. And I think what Browning was saying was that the whole idea of stretching is important, but it's okay if you don't get there.

[00:13:59] It's the journey, it's the [00:14:00] journey. 

[00:14:00] Yeah. I agree. If your dreams don't scare you, then your dreams aren't big enough was another, there you go. Yeah. Sometimes came up what? I, I can't remember who it was, but it was, I thought that was great too.

[00:14:10] Bill Payne: Have a dream, you know, see where you wanna take it. Absolutely. And I said, I auditioned to playing drums in the first band. Thank God had a piano sitting there. I would've probably not passed the audition 

[00:14:23] well, that's a great point. So on that note, looking forward, what's next for you and Little Feat, will you record some more studio albums?

[00:14:30] I have to ask this question because , a lot of my Canadian Llsteners have asked me to ask it, but any chance you're gonna tour Canada in the future? Yeah, what's next. 

[00:14:39] I would love to go up to Canada. Any excuse to get to Canada is a good one for me. I love it up there but yes, we're gonna be recording new music, in midst, all the things that I've already written.

[00:14:48] I'm still writing. I think it's important for Little Feat, to have several albums. At least on the horizon for us. Mm-hmm, , we're doing what we're doing now, which is taking a rear [00:15:00] view mirror approach, which is waiting for Columbus. , that itself is a gutsy call cuz iconic record. Yep.

[00:15:07] But how do we approach it I think people are just loving the fact that the energy's there, some little twists and turns we do are very reminiscent of what the original record was. Let's say in, Scott solo and, Mercenary Territory. He does that as a salute to Lowell. Can the guy play other things?

[00:15:23] You bet you exemplifies that in other songs let's say Day or Night for example. Right. So it's a wonderful combination of things, this is a real band. We're not a cover band of Little Feat, right. This is little feet. Yeah. And we're, more than willing to prove that by what bands and what artists do, which has come up with new things, because we actually have something to say.

[00:15:44] Yeah, 

[00:15:45] well, I mean, Scott, Sherrard is a great addition, by the way. I thought he sounded amazing. Of course, first time I've seen him, with the band, but, he's a terrific talent. Is he gonna stay with the band? 

[00:15:54] Well, I think so. Great. Look, you know, I suppose anything can [00:16:00] happen.

[00:16:00] He's in there. When you give people the latitude, to do what that's, what a band is, mm-hmm is giving people the latitude to be involved and to have a voice. Do you need leadership? You do. Yeah. It's not a free for all. And I've been caught a couple times with a Little Feat where I thought I was leading something I turned around and there wasn't anybody within 200 yards of me

[00:16:21] so guess what? You're not leading anymore. That's right. Franklin Roosevelt said. I don't take anything for granted. There was a comment that somebody made about Tony, Leone I thought it was just great. And they said he's not Richie Hayward, but Richie Hayward is not Tony either.

[00:16:37] Right? Right. Exactly. It was just so succinctly put and it doesn't denigrate anything or anybody. I know that there's an attitude with fans I'll just keep it within the realm of Little Feat that if they show any sort of movement to embracing whether Sean Murphy or Craig fuller any new inclination we've had of this group that somehow [00:17:00] that denigrates Lowell or Paul or Richie.

[00:17:03] Right. Right. 

[00:17:04] I said, look, if you wanna worship at that alter, go ahead. I think you're losing sight I think you're in a way you're actually denigrating the memory of those you're trying to protect. 

[00:17:13] Blake Melnick: Right. Cuz I would think it's really their legacy. 

[00:17:16] Bill Payne: We're not in competition with Lowell. 

[00:17:17] Somebody at a music conference, with Jim Louis in Aspen, Colorado, Yelled as I was walking up to the stage, we've come a part of the conference. I was the only musician on the stage there, he goes is Lowell still with you. I grabbed the mic and I go always 

[00:17:33] Blake Melnick: You've always handled those kinds of comments really well because so many of the interviews I listened to would always zero in on the loss of Lowell George, and it must get pretty tiring answering the same questions over and over again. Lowell George was brilliant. We all loved him, but the band has continued on and I don't think it has lost anything. It's just different.

[00:17:54] Bill Payne: It's just different. And if you're pointing back with the connection between things, cuz there's a lot of people that are coming into this [00:18:00] group that dunno who Lowell is

[00:18:02] so you point them back. Right? Good point. That's their way to discover who he is. This is what keeps. The memory and the honor of those that came before us alive in the conversation that we continue to carry on, we're still influenced by them and we should be mm-hmm

[00:18:17] When I announced the new people in the band, I said, there's three people. I'm leaving out. Lowell George, Richie Hayward, Paul Barrere right? They're in our hearts. I know there are many of your out in the audience and this legacy that you're allowing us to do by being here, to see what we're up to.

[00:18:33] We're very grateful and thankful for, that legacy is going to continue to introducing new music and what we're doing tonight. And so this next song we're gonna play, goes out to those three gentlemen, and it goes out to you and it's called Time Loves a Hero that 

[00:18:48] says it all that says it all. 

[00:18:49] Blake Melnick: Yeah, and that's a great point you make. You know, I announced in our trailer and I was thinking about new listeners to Little Feet, that what I was gonna do is put together a chronology of the records [00:19:00] as a new listener that I think they should listen to and in what particular order. And I was going to do almost exactly what you just stated, which was to start from the present and then work backwards from there.

[00:19:10] I think you always begin where the band is at or where the music is at today. And then as you say, it becomes a legacy they see how the band grew and developed and changed over time. And I think it's really interesting.

[00:19:24] I do this in business too. I always tell people, look let's start where you want to end up, let's make that the reality today, and then we'll work backwards and fill in all the things that we need to fix in order to make sure that sticks 

[00:19:35] makes sense. 

[00:19:36] You know, you've always done a wonderful job fielding these weird questions, and I've noticed you do this many times. You always acknowledge Lowell, Richie and Paul, then their contributions to the band, to the music, and you do it in such a nice way. And I'm sure a lot of the people that come at you with these questions, like the fellow that screamed at you when you were walking down the aisle and I was thinking, Boy, I'd really get angry at that.

[00:19:59] but you didn't, [00:20:00] you came back with the perfect response. 

[00:20:03] Bill Payne: no, well being in a band, you get things not all the time, but, somebody the other night was talking about somebody coming in and well, they need to play a solo there. And my response was, look, think of what we're doing up here as a boarding house reach

[00:20:19] Yeah, I don't that expression only on a table and go and reach for it before somebody else gets in. You left. with the Ham you don't want. We're a group of irreverent, people, musicians and artists generally are. Nobody has a high regard for authority. No, no,

[00:20:42] need it. You need that, those confines sometimes. So you gotta be tough to give what you want out of what you're doing. It's important. It is not an exercise and frivolous, behavior or goals. These things are serious, but I call it serious fun. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna have fun, I think that, [00:21:00] If it's serious enough, you're gonna occasionally get serious about how you approach people and then the sorry, and flights, as it says in Mercenary Territory, You gotta work things out, but the working things out is the process again of making things stronger, right? If somebody was gonna, depart the group on a whim, they weren't invested to begin with. To play Little Feat's music.

[00:21:23] You after you invested in it? Yeah. Well, 

[00:21:25] Blake Melnick: I was watching Scott on stage and I was thinking, boy, he must have had to spend hours and hours learning some of those solos, on certain songs, mercenary territory being one, those are difficult.

[00:21:37] So there's a commitment there to any musician joining your band, just to get up to speed with the stuff that you've already done, let alone go off and take it in a new creative direction. So I hear you. 

[00:21:49] Bill Payne: Yeah, it's good though. I mean, I've been playing the dance since I was 15. I 15 I'm 73 and, if I don't know the territory, no one does. 

[00:21:57] I don't draw the line in the sand there's always surprises to [00:22:00] it, You know you can always learn. I learned a lot from these two new members, that come in and they've studied our music. They worked, Tony Leone was I think, 12 years old when he was listening to Richie Hayward.

[00:22:11] He's 54 or 53. And, studying alone, doesn't make it taking play. , Tony's a very smart, capable musician. And, we're always kind of centering in on what part of the conversation I keep using that word, but it's what part of Richie's playing. Do you wanna introduce here ? I'm not asking him to do it.

[00:22:31] He's figuring it out, but he also has his own right way of playing. And he exponentially grown as has Scott. I knew they were both really good. Mean, they're not 

[00:22:41] just 

[00:22:41] Blake Melnick: good. They are great. They're really good. I mean, let's be honest. OK. 

[00:22:46] Bill Payne: You are bringing the goods. But that's the thing you never know. 

[00:22:49] Kenny came up the other night and when he says I'm really thinking about how to genuinely focus when we're up on stage , that speaks to volumes. Not that he wasn't focused before, but that he would [00:23:00] bring it up. And his playing is elevated as good as he is.

[00:23:03] And he's fabulous. He is fabulous. Yeah. Even more focused, greater. I say, Kenny, you played something on Day or Night the other night I looked over and I just, I went, did I just hear that? It was incredible. That's what we're witnessing. Every night is like, people know what this thing is.

[00:23:21] We've lived it. We know exactly where we are with this the door is open to try things. in any walk of life, when you're afforded something that allows you to put in your dreams, I mean, how can it get better than that? how Long, it will last that's that's life, too.

[00:23:37] In the sense of, you know, when does the inspiration run out when you hit a wall right now, that wall , is nonexistent. 

[00:23:43] Blake Melnick: That's great. Well, listen, I've cognizant I've taken up a lot of your time. Bill. I've really enjoyed the conversation so much. Great. Thank you so much. Me too.

[00:23:50] And, I'll give you the final word. What do you wanna say? 

[00:23:55] Bill Payne: I think I just said it, the walls are gone. They're down. They're nonexistent. So , the path [00:24:00] forward is really wide open. I'm thankful for the people I get to play with, for the guests that come , that a door in the stage from time to time.

[00:24:07] Playing with Hot Tuna is an absolute joy We're in a very, very good place right now. Oh, we're gonna be doing a documentary. It looks like. 

[00:24:13] Blake Melnick: So tell me about that. 

[00:24:15] Bill Payne: Jesse Lauder is, the director it's not in Ink yet, but he's our guy. And I don't remember the name of the documentary that he did with, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, but it was also Joe Cocker.

[00:24:28] And, the fact that they're all. Aligned up with each other will make it easier for people to find that documentary. It's very good. Leon, Russell's all over it. Mm-hmm, , Jesse's a great storyteller and he's gonna help tell our story. And that story involves in my words, with Lowell, I'm not out there to, define Lowell's stumbles, right.

[00:24:46] I wanna define his greatness much like I did with Richie hay. You define people by we, we all have our, vulnerabilities. But I don't want focus on and center in on that. That's like a money Python story we built a bridge, the, [00:25:00] you know, yeah.

[00:25:01] Blake Melnick: Sensational. Yeah. 

[00:25:03] Bill Payne: How many people gone down those Hills? I mean, you know, Jimmy Hendricks, Janice Joplin. Boom. Fine. What made those people great. ? Absolutely. We gotta have some fights and took drugs for God sake. Oh my God. Yeah. Right. Okay. Fine. You know, tell me something. I don't know.

[00:25:20] Yeah. I mean, let's, let's get in , the story, the Dickinson story is the thing that's worth telling. Everybody has a story out there Blake 

[00:25:28] everybody does. 

[00:25:30] Blake Melnick: And as you say, human beings are complex, we've all got our foibles. And, why focus on those? 

[00:25:35] Bill Payne: They can inform certain things, but they don't have to take up all the oxygen.

[00:25:39] Blake Melnick: Exactly. 

[00:25:40] So when will the document to be released Bill, do you know? Approximately. 

[00:25:43] Bill Payne: Can I say September next year? 

[00:25:45] Blake Melnick: Well, that's great. Excellent. I'll keep an eye out for that for sure and post something on our show site when it's released. But Bill, it's been an honor and a pleasure to have you on the show. I've really enjoyed our conversation and I'll let you know through Dennis when the episodes drop so you can give him a listen.[00:26:00] 

[00:26:00] And again, thank you so much for the generosity of your time.

[00:26:05] Bill Payne: My pleasure. Thank you. 

[00:26:06] Blake Melnick: Good show tonight. 

[00:26:07] Bill Payne: Yeah, man, take care.

[00:26:08] Blake Melnick: What I enjoyed most about the interview with Bill Payne was Bill's willingness to have conversations. He uses this term a lot during the interview, and I came to view it as almost his personal philosophy, Conversations between people, conversations between musicians playing together, and conversations between musicians and fans.

[00:26:29] It seemed to me Bill was, in a sense, talking about the importance of making a connect. The focus of our conversation was about discovering the essence of Little Feat, which lay beyond simply the musicians in the band. Did we get there? Well, I think so, or at least we did from my perspective, to be sure Little Feat is about the music and the songs as Bill stated, but it's more than this.

[00:26:53] It's about the entire ecosystem, the music, the songs, the art, the fans, [00:27:00] and the joy of being together and creating a shared experie. It's an ecosystem where everyone in the band recognizes the contributions by all those who have come before, who have both helped to shape, preserve, and build on that little feet sound.

[00:27:17] It's about hanging onto the good times, while continually expanding their vocabulary. A fine layering, which comes from new members, having the latitude to express themselves in their own terms. Continually refining and defining the sound, which is most assuredly Little Feat... for what it's worth.

[00:26:08] Blake Melnick: This concludes part two of my interview with little Feet. Great. Mr. Bill Payne, join us on the next episode of the Space In Between where Cameron Brown and I will take you on an interactive backward journey into the music of Little Feet, and we're gonna try a little experiment where we will provide a playlist on Spotify that will accompany the episode.

[00:26:30] So stay tuned for what it's worth.