Even an A-list rock star like Dave Matthews can't always get what he wants. Invited to perform on the upcoming Little Feat album, Join The Band, due out Aug. 26, Matthews wanted to sing the freewheeling, Dixie boogie-rock band's hell-bent ode to long-haul truckers "Willin,'" a classic from its rootsy self-titled 1971 debut.

The vocals for that track were already spoken for. Undeterred, Matthews, ever the true professional, took on "Fat Man in the Bathtub" — off 1973's Dixie Chicken — instead and worked it almost to the point of obsession to get it right.

"Well, let's take 'Fatman ...' as an example," says Little Feat keyboardist and songwriter Bill Payne. "We have Dave Matthews singing on that song, and, as all Little Feat records are, they're really hard to define. We have on 'Willin'" Brooks and Dunn are singing on that one. Ronnie Dunn asked me, he says, 'Is this like a tribute record?' And I said, 'No, it's not, because we've got other people singing songs with us — some of the songs we've written; others we haven't. We're all over the map on this thing, so when Dave Matthews got ahold of 'Fat Man in the Bathtub,' he originally wanted to sing 'Willin' and I said that I have someone in mind for that one, do you mind singing 'Fat Man ..."? He jumped on board. He put down 18 vocals — so, backgrounds, leads, harmonies with himself."

All that work left Matthews' voice spent.

"The next day, he appeared I think on the 'David Letterman Show' and he'd darn near blown a ...," says Payne (the last word having been lost on the recording of my interview, but you get the idea). "It was just some amazing stuff that he did. And that song, by the way, we recorded it in (Jimmy) Buffett's studio down in Florida, down in Key West, at a place called Shrimp Boat Sound. It's where we recorded Licensed to Chill. I was on that record for Jimmy Buffett ... a real comfortable place to play, real small. We did the tracks I think within a two-week period, about three years ago, and 'Fat Man... " is a real slow version of that song. Sonny Landreth is also on that particular tune, and Sonny is a dear friend of ours. He's probably one of the best slide players on the planet."

As Payne said, Join The Band is a real hodgepodge of reworked Little Feat classics and new material, like Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" that's been years in the making. A boatload of guest stars make for some crazy collaborations. Here's a sampling of some of the names that appear: the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson, Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger and Vince Gill.

One of the most interesting tracks is "Trouble," which feature Inara George, daughter of Little Feat founder Lowell George.

"There's an interesting story behind that particular song, other than that her mother Liz used to sing that to her as a little girl as a bedtime song," says Payne. "That song we recorded as a band with Inara I want to say like seven or eight years ago — it was quite a while ago. This thing is in a rocket ship literally that's headed out to space. It's literally a time capsule for people to discover, or no one will discover — whatever is going to happen out there. But, it's literally floating in space. There's a lot of other artists on there, but we happened to somehow get aboard that space shuttle and so Little Feat and Inara George are floating out there in the ether some place. The other interesting part about that song, Inara and I recorded that in Los Angeles — that's one of the few things we recorded in L.A. It's just her and I, and I was on the acoustic piano and she sang it. I think we probably nailed it within the first or second take. But it was in a studio that was one of the very first recording studios that Little Feat had recorded in when we did our first album, Little Feat."

That would be Ocean Ways studio, formerly known as United Western. In 1970, Little Feat recorded its first record there.

But Join The Band is the new disc from the band, and to get the lowdown on it and the band's summer touring schedule, go to www.littlefeat.net/

And stay tuned to www.goldminemag.com for a podcast of our interview with Bill Payne.