Little Feat signed to Warner Bros. Records through Zappa's efforts and their first album was "Little Feat", produced by Russ Titelman, but it was not a commercial success and only sold 11,000 copies on initial release. The follow-up album "Sailin' Shoes", produced by Ted Templeman, was the band's first record to feature cover artwork by Neon Park, but despite good reviews and an improvement on its predecessor, the album fared no better commercially. Estrada left the band in 1972 to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band as well as to get away from the pollution in Los Angeles and he was replaced on bass by Kenny Gradney. In addition, Little Feat expanded to a sextet by adding a second guitarist Paul Barrere and percussionist Sam Clayton, thus cementing the classic line-up, and they took on a New Orleans funk direction with their next album "Dixie Chicken", the first to be produced by George. By the spring of 1976, Little Feat were touring North America opening for The Who. Little Feat released several other studio albums in the 1970s, including: "Feats Don't Fail Me Now", "The Last Record Album" and "Time Loves a Hero". The group's 1978 live album "Waiting for Columbus" became their best-selling album. Tensions within the group, especially between George, Payne, and, to a lesser extent, Barrere regarding musical direction and leadership, led to Payne and Barrere's departure from the group in 1979 and the group's subsequent disbandment. In an interview with Bill Flanagan conducted 11 days before his death, George stated that he was keen to re-form Little Feat without Payne and Barrere in order to reassert his full control over the group. George was also a producer, and produced the Grateful Dead's 1978 album "Shakedown Street", as well as Little Feat's records and his own 1979 solo album "Thanks, I'll Eat It Here"; he also co-produced a couple of tracks on Valerie Carter's 1977 release "Just A Stone's Throw Away". In 1977 he co-produced John Starling's debut solo album "Long Time Gone". When not playing with Little Feat, George lent his talents as a session player to various artists, most frequently as a slide guitarist. He contributed to Barbara Keith's 1972 self-titled debut, John Cale's "Paris 1919" (1973), Happy End's "Happy End" (1973), Bonnie Raitt's "Takin' My Time" (1973; "I Feel the Same" and "Guilty"), Harry Nilsson's "Son of Schmilsson" (1973; "Take 54"), James Taylor's "Gorilla" (1975; "Angry Blues"), The Meters' "Rejuvenation" (1974; "Just Kissed My Baby"), John Sebastian's "Tarzana Kid" (1974) and Jackson Browne's "The Pretender" (1976).