The Los Angeles-based band with the Southern-fried sound will have taken roughly a month off from some heavy touring by the time it kicks off another outing January 17 at the Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Ariz.

So far, the itinerary is shaping up with legs through the Western and Eastern U.S., sandwiching a weeklong jaunt to Australia in mid-April.

Little Feat has been touring hard in support of two recent albums: a studio effort called Chinese Work Songs, and a critically acclaimed box set Hotcakes and Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat. In addition to a world tour of its own, the band was a regular on last spring’s installment of the Volunteer Jam tour with the Charlie Daniels Band and Hank Williams Jr.

The legendary band was formed in 1969 by Lowell George and Roy Estrada, both veterans of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Estrada soon departed, but the enigmatic George guided the group through its most successful years in the mid-1970s with albums like Dixie Chicken and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now.

George disbanded the group in 1979 and embarked on a solo career – one cut short by his death from an apparent heart attack in the middle of his first tour.

Surviving members of Little Feat regrouped in 1988 and though the band’s albums since then have been less successful, the band’s live show continues to be in demand.