Little Feat - Dixie Chicken

The band Little Feat was formed by Lowell George in 1973, with the help of Frank Zappa, well before I could appreciate good music. If fact, during our teen years, my friends and I thought we really knew about music. It was mostly rock, but we also enjoyed jazz, fusion, blues, and even watched hip-hop come out of the Bronx and into Philly neighborhoods. So, of course we came across southern rock, in the likes of Molly Hatchet, .38 Special, and the Marshall Tucker Band. We considered The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the like just to be mainstream rock n' roll.

Well, then I ended up going to college in the south. I remember my roommate and I had borrowed my girlfriends car, and we were going through the cassettes. Most of it neither of us liked. There was too much country, some classical, and others we'd never seen. Well, Dixie Chicken was one of those. Turns out I liked it, but my rommie did not, so I wouldn't even hear the entire album for awhile yet. The music was just wonderful, and I was saddened to hear Lowell George the lead vocalist had died. I listened to more of their work, but nothing quite managed to top what I'd first heard, and it was impossible to know how much the album would mean to me.

The girlfriend would end up being my wife, and we'd take a half decade hiatus from college and the south, but in one of the interesting turns, Little Feat opened for Jimmy Buffett at The Mann in Philadelphia. Two great acts, open air amphitheater, lawn seats, and coolers allowed inside! What a show... Was it the same with the new vocalists? No. Was it awesome? Yes! It would still be a couple years until I went back to school, but when I did, it was different.

I was now not only a husband, but a father of a fine son, with another on the way. It was time for me to make a life for my family. What would sneak up from behind was an anxiety in my closet that had never been seen before. Public speaking, especially when defending my work, would make me ill. It could manifest in chills, vomiting, severe sweating, shaking, and there was no explanation for it. My wife thought it was nerves, and she was partially right, and she suggested before any public engagement, to put on headphones and listen to soothing music. It turned out to be a great idea. When I flipped through the CDs, this one stood out for whatever reason. It worked! At least to some extent... Even a couple years later when I was diagnosed with an actually anxiety disorder and medicated, I still meditated. This was the music that worked, and it helped me graduate.

In fact, to this day some decades later, I'll still put it on before a contentious meeting.