Rock and Roll Doctor: Lowell George Tribute

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Full title: Rock And Roll Doctor: A Tribute To Lowell George. Producers include: Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, John Porter, Ira Ingber, J.D. Souther. Engineers include: Rik Pekkonen, John Porter, Richard Bosworth, Ira Ingber, Ross Hogarth. Includes liner notes by Martin Kibbee. As the guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter for Little Feat, Lowell George was one of the biggest cult heroes of the '70s, creating a body of work that was deeply set within the blues tradition yet fiercely idiosyncratic and weird. It was the kind of music that earns a large cult following, but doesn't guarantee good covers, since its very quirkiness is among its most appealing traits. Basically, it's a question of matching the right artist with the right song, something that happens about half of the time on Rock N Roll Doctor (A Tribute to Lowell George). By the time the tribute record was released in 1998, his "Willin'" had long been established as a classic, the kind of song that could be covered by anyone -- along with "Dixie Chicken," it's one of the rare universal songs in George's catalog -- but Rock N Roll Doctor doesn't include either of those songs, or "Fat Man in the Bathtub." Instead, its 13 tracks are all relatively obscure, known to hardcore fans but not casual listeners, and this album is a record made by hardcore fans for hardcore fans. That doesn't mean it's necessarily all successful. Eddie Money wasn't really meant to sing the title track, and a couple of cuts, ironically including Little Feat's reworking of "Honest Man," are a bit too reverant to his memory (the group erases that negative with a storming "Cold, Cold, Cold," performed as a duet with Bonnie Raitt). But the best songs -- the Bottle Rockets and David Lindley's "Rocket in My Pocket," Jackson Browne's "I've Been the One," Taj Mahal's "Feats Don't Fail Me Now," J.D. Souther's "Roll Um Easy," Allen Toussaint & Leo Nocentelli's "Tow Trains" and especially Randy Newman & Valerie Carter's "Sailing Shoes" -- demonstrate that George's songs can live on, provided that the artists perform them with as much imagination as he wrote them with. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Entertainment Weekly (4/17/98, p.73) - "...Cynics could carp that these respectful takes on George's funk-inflected Southern boogie and winsome country blues might have been a tad less trad...but DOCTOR is still as dependably satisfying as a plate of greasy barbecued ribs..." - Rating: B

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