Well into its second half-century as a touring and recording outfit, the “freight train comin’ atcha,” — in late guitarist Paul Barrere’s phrase — that is Little Feat will roll into Deerfield for an Aug. 20 show at Tree House Brewing Co.

The band’s latest release is “Sam’s Place,” an album of mostly blues covers that puts the vocal spotlight on longtime percussionist Sam Clayton. Recorded mainly at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, it leads off with an original, “Milkman,” with lyrics by Clayton and music by Little Feat guitarists Fred Tackett and Scott Sharrard. Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call” features Bonnie Raitt, a lifetime fan who, after their breakup in 1979, famously said she missed Little Feat more than she missed being 8 years old. The album closes with a live recording of “I’ve Got My Mojo Workin.’”

“It was a long wait, but it’s satisfying,” Clayton said of making the record.

“It was something we’ve wanted to do for a long time with Sam,” bassist Kenny Gradney said by phone recently. “We just picked some tunes we liked.”

“Sam’s Place” also features some fine harmonica from a member of the band’s road crew, Michael “Bull” LoBue.

“Sam found out he played harmonica, and he liked the way he played,” Gradney said.

Blues has always been part of Little Feat’s musical gumbo, from Lowell George’s cover of “Forty-Four Blues” along with Howlin’ Wolf’s “How Many More Years,” off the band’s 1971 debut album, and his own tongue-in-cheek “A Apolitical Blues” from the next year’s “Sailin’ Shoes.”

Gradney and Clayton joined Little Feat at the same time, ending the band’s first brief hiatus in 1972. Gradney, New Orleans-born but raised in L.A. in a big family, had begun playing as a teenager along with his cousin Al McKay, who played guitar for many years with Earth, Wind & Fire.

“He’s the reason I’m a bass player,” Gradney said.

He and Clayton were playing together in Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett’s band, and they left at the same time. Then Gradney got a call from Dolph Rempp of Studio Instrument Rentals (SIR), where his brother worked, telling him about a band that was looking for a bass player.

Gradney met the band at a sound stage at Warner Bros. studios and he and Clayton were hired in no time.

“I liked this band. I liked Lowell a lot — we got along really well,” he said.

Now a sextet, with new guitarist Paul Barrere and drummer Richie Hayward and keyboardist Bill Payne from the original band, the revamped Little Feat set off for its first gig at the Crater Festival in Hawaii.

The band had a deal with Warner Bros. for two albums at that point, and Gradney said one of the things that really sold him was when George told him the band would split publishing royalties — an effective way to minimize resentments over money.

Over the course of the 1970s, Little Feat established itself as one of the most celebrated bands of the era, winning legions of fans around the world. Musical and other differences within the group led to a split shortly before Lowell George’s death from a heart attack in 1979.

“We didn’t get back together until 1987,” Gradney said.

When Payne approached him about a reunion, Gradney said, he and Hayward were on tour with Warren Zevon. The reformed Little Feat included Fred Tackett, who had been close to the band since the beginning, having played on three albums and written the song “Fool Yourself” on the “Dixie Chicken” album.

“He was on every record you could imagine,” Gradney said of Tackett, citing Lionel Richie’s first four solo albums.

The revamped Feat’s first album, “Let It Roll,” was nominated for a Grammy. Different lead singers have come and gone in the following years while Little Feat has continued to tour and produce recordings — 44 in all by Gradney’s count. Hayward died in 2010, and Barrere in 2019. Newest members at this point are slide guitarist Scott Sharrard, known for his work with the late Gregg Allman, and drummer Tony Leone filling Hayward’s mighty shoes.

Leone said he focuses on the late drummer’s feel as his guide.

“Whenever I’m going to play those tunes, I’m always going to consult what Richie played first and I’m always going to try to play those parts with integrity,” he says in the band bio.

The group recently got home from five weeks on tour. They start up again Aug. 17 in Connecticut.

“We did the West Coast with Tedeschi and Trucks, then we went east and toured with Los Lobos, which was a blast,” Gradney said. “We had everyone on stage the last night.”

At 74, Gradney shows no sign of wanting to slow down.

“It’s fun,” he said of touring. “I get to play my own stuff, all the music I helped create.”

One thing he doesn’t do often is sing, though some mischievous audience members seem to think he should. For some obscure reason, he said, fans at shows started holding up signs saying “Let Kenny sing!”

“Billy got me to sing the last verse of ‘The Fan,’” Payne and George’s polyrhythmic ode to a groupie, though he said it’s somewhere between singing and talking in his case.

“It’s very difficult to sing and play bass — and I can’t sing anyway,” he said.

Little Feat’s “Can’t Be Satisfied” tour with special guest The Steel Wheels comes to Summer Stage at Tree House Brewing Co. in South Deerfield Aug. 20. Doors open at 5 for the 7 p.m. show. Tickets are available from www.tixr.com/groups/treehousebrew/events/little-feat-can-t-be-satisfied-tour-99548.