Kenny Gradney – Bass

Another request from the website staunchest supporter, this is the bass part to the Little Feat tune, ‘Let It Roll’ from the 1988 album of the same name. Great groove from bass player Gradney and drummer, Ritchie Hayward. Can you believe it, I got to jam with Ritchie Hayward. I was working with a band in Chepstow (UK) with pre-Feeder Grant Nicholas and Hayward was in Monmouth with Robert Plant’s band at the time and he wanted to play. Mutual friend put him in touch with us and it happened. Of course, having grown up in rural Wales, I didn’t have the faintest idea who he was until after the fact! I don’t really recall much about the session other than his moustache!

Kenny Gradney (born February 25, 1950, in Baton Rouge is an American bassist and songwriter, best known as a member of the band Little Feat. He joined after their second album, replacing founding bassist Roy Estrada in 1972. Gradney has remained their bassist ever since and coinciding with his arrival, his friend Sam Clayton also joined the band on percussion and Paul Barrere, who knew bandleader Lowell George from Hollywood High School, joined as a second guitarist and cementing the classic line-up of George, Barrere, Richie Hayward, Bill Payne, Gradney and Clayton.

In the summer of 1970, Gradney participated in a multi-group tour of Canadian stadium shows known as Festival Express as a member of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends in which all of the groups traveled together on a passenger train. He appears in the documentary film of the same name playing and partying with Janis Joplin, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Rick Danko and others.

In addition to his work with Little Feat, Gradney has played and recorded with many notable musicians, including Delaney & Bonnie, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Bob Weir’s Bobby and the Midnites^, Jazz Is Dead, jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, Warren Zevon, Robert Palmer, Mick Fleetwood, and Carly Simon.

This is a testy little part because of the tempo but it’s a great tune a motors along beautifully.