Little Feat to play at Concert Under the Stars

The sixth annual Concert Under the Stars, a benefit for The Greenhouse Project promises to be bigger than ever and features Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett of Little Feat opening for Little River Band.

The event takes place July 9 at Café at Adele’s and the venue has been expanded to allow for greater attendance, said Karen Abowd, Greenhouse Project president.

“We are getting really close to selling out,” Abowd said. “The community support of The Greenhouse and how it helps the underserved in our area, as well as how it is growing a new generation of children who now understand where food comes from and many of whom are considering pursuing ag-related fields in college, is humbling.”

Barrere and Tackett as openers for the concert is fitting. They have, in this incarnation, returned to music that is at its heart pristine in its simplicity. The format strips down the songs offering new arrangements and some funk, Barrere said. While they do still perform with Little Feat, the two have found going out on the road as weekend warriors, suits their current lives.

“Sure we have and do love touring the world, and I can see how folks get addicted to touring, but there is something really nice about being home,” said Barrere, who will be turning 66 in the next few weeks. “I had my kids later in life and it’s nice to be around because now they treat me like a king.”

Health reasons have also played a role in staying in the U.S., though Barrere has loved every minute touring Europe and the United Kingdom.

“In the Little Feat days we’d check into the hotel, hit the stage and be out, so it has been nice to go back, play performing arts centers and pubs and see the people,” he said, adding they had the opportunity on the spur of the moment to visit Stonehenge and managed to talk their way past security with instruments in hand, assuring the security guy there would be no commercial use of the pictures.

“Well, Fred’s wife took the pictures and Fred and I were saying, ‘we are gonna jam at Stonehenge,’” Barrere said. “Who gets to do that? Though now, if someone booked us in Hawaii, we would go.”

Anyone visiting the duo’s web site can enjoy a bit of that memory.

With Barrere on guitar and Tackett on mandolin, audience members will be mesmerized by the richness and interpretations of both Little Feat material, much of it newly arranged, as well as original material written and recorded by Barrere and Tackett, individually and collectively.

There’s been no stopping their creative endeavors through the years.

“This is really, literally the easiest thing to do — two friends getting together and having a jam session every time,” Barrere said. “Fred and I have been doing this duo thing 15 years or longer and two instruments playing together, to hear a song like ‘Rocket in My Pocket’ on mandolin is fun.”

To keep up with the latest, visit www.paulandfred.net.

Tickets for Concert Under the Stars cost $65 for Gold Circle seating, $45 for general admission and $30 for bleachers/standing room, available at Café at Adele’s, 1112 N. Carson St., Carson City or at www.carsoncitygreenhouse.org.