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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. ~ All Music Guide 

Front cover only.

01. Cold, Cold, Cold - Bonnie Raitt and Little Feat 
02. Feets Don't Fail Me Now - Taj Mahal
03. Roll Um Easy - J.D. Souther
04. Rocket In My Pocket - The Bottle Rockets and David Lindley 
05. Sailin' Shoes - Randy Newman and Valerie Carter 
06. I've Been The One - Jackson Browne
07. Two Trains - Allen Toussaint/Leo Nocentelli
08. Long Distance Love - Keisuke Kuwata/Merry Clayton
09. Rock And Roll Doctor - Eddie Money/Buddaheads
10. Straight From The Heart - Chris Hillman/Jennifer Warnes
11. Honest Man - Little Feat
12. Spanish Moon - Phil Perry/Merry Clayton/Ricky Lawson
13. Trouble - Inara George
14. Lowell's Voice - Lowell George