The late Neon Park designed this Little Feat 1973 “Waiting For Columbus” album cover. This is included in a book devoted to his art titled “Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The Art of Neon Park.” Submitted/David Moss


Little Feat guitarists to perform for nonprofit ALS Association
by Wendy Butler, 5/18/2007

Neon Park’s artwork connected with the musical group for which he created album covers, so much so that Little Feat’s recordings could be considered as much a visual as an aural experience.

“His artwork was as much a part of Little Feat’s records as the sounds were, making it a total experience of sight and sound,” said Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere during an e-mail interview. “His wit and expertise were exceptional.”

Martin Muller adopted the name Neon Park during the 1960s. He designed nearly all of Little Feat’s covers, as well as supplied artwork to other recording artists. He succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1993.

Barrere and fellow Little Feat guitarist Fred Tackett are donating their time for a concert today at 7 p.m. at the Garberville Theater. Admission in advance is $30. Tickets are available at Wild Horse Records, Garberville; The Metro and The Works, Arcata; and The Works, Eureka.

The concert will benefit the Calabasas Hills branch of the national nonprofit ALS Association, which is dedicated to research, patient and community services, public education and advocacy.

David Moss and Jim Fulton will present this event in honor of their close friend Louise Kurtti, who recently died from ALS.

“When Louise died, we were all very sad and came up with the idea of taking the sad energy and doing something positive with it,” Moss said during an e-mail interview. “Hence the idea for the show developed.”

Barrere said the ALS Association offered Park and his wife Chick Strand support during the final months of Park’s life.

“So we have aligned ourselves with the ALS Association working with numerous chapters around the country trying to help raise money for not only a cure through research, but to help their efforts with caregiving they do for so many affected families of those stricken with ALS.”

The ALS Web site (www.alsa.org) explains, “ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body.

“The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. Yet, through it all, for the vast majority of people, their minds remain unaffected.”

“Every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and every 90 minutes someone dies of ALS,” ALS Greater Bay Area Chapter Executive Director Linda M. de Mello said during a phone interview recently. “Fifty percent of people diagnosed with ALS are dead within three to five years of their diagnosis.”

She said because it is a “fatal disease,” support and education about it is a demonstrable challenge.

It was discovered more than a century and a half ago, but scientists have only recently obtained the technologies to apply more in-depth studies of ALS and other neurological diseases, de Mello said.

She said an ALS Association priority is to advocate for an increase in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense.

A recent Harvard study indicated veterans have a 60 percent higher rate of ALS as compared to the general population, but it isn’t clear why, de Mello said.


Another association priority is to establish an ALS registry, which would be administered by the Centers for Disease Control.

The Bay Area chapter is responsible for Humboldt County to the Oregon border.

The Little Feat guitarists’ concert is a vital source of contact, de Mello said.

“They will attract people to the concert that may not have a connection with ALS in any way than just coming to the concert,” she said. “The outreach is so powerful. It goes far beyond what we might think.”