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Leo Kottke
By
Published: Feb 05, 2009
Category:
Country
Videos
Little Martha
Medley
Leo Kottke says he loves the guitar because he could make a beautiful sound from one simply by dropping it on the floor.
And he does not mean a custom-made beauty. When Kottke walks onstage, he carries a pair of Taylor acoustics that are as plain and unassuming as he is. They have virtually no ornamentation — not even fretboard dots or other inlays. It is only inside that these guitars are remarkable, with specialized bracing to handle heavy gauge strings that can be tuned several pitches lower than standard.
As he has for forty years, Kottke takes the stage and a lone chair to wild applause, places one guitar directly on the floor, and launches into one of his blistering 12-string compositions. Though not born in Minnesota, he is strongly identified with the state (“A Prairie Home Companion” signed off with what was intended to be its final show in 1987 with Leo playing “Crow River Waltz”) and he seems to personify an artful spirit that has endured long sunless winters.
Kottke first gained notice, decades ago, with his 6 and 12 String Guitar record (the “Armadillo” album, put out by John Fahey’s Takoma records). He has now recorded more than 30 CDs and some 300 songs. In addition to Fahey, he has played with Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Joe Pass, Paco Pena, Michael Hedges, Phish Bassist Mike Gordan and other greats. His legacy is the fusion of early 20th Century American finger style masters with jazz and classical guitar. It can easily be argued that Kottke is our greatest living acoustic finger-style guitarist.
Start with Kottke’s 1995 Leo Live. The CD includes what have become signature 12-string pieces, Kottke’s baritone vocals, and two quiet instrumental covers that have served as encore nightcaps for thousands of his performances over the years. Once addicted, follow up with My Father’s Face and One Guitar, No Vocals — studio recordings of much greater delicacy of tone and content — and his live DVD Leo Kottke, Home and Away.
On his Live CD, Kottke tells stories with his quirkiest of poetic voices:
“My father is deaf in one ear but he can always tell if you put on a couple pounds.”
“It’s like pornography…You start looking at a jungle disease book and you get sicker as you go along but you can’t stop.”
Kottke’s virtuosity is matched by his range: His pieces move from very quiet to rock and roll infused with jazz. He employs virtually no electronic sound manipulation: no reverb, chorus, or other effects that can be used to supplement talent. He does the occasional quirky word-sound poem set to music and he can play a standard on 6- or 12-string that moves well beyond guitar as lyric-supplement to catch the feeling of an aging lover’s sadness.
Many years ago Duane Allman wrote and laid down the acoustic guitar track of the beautiful and tragic song “Little Martha” on The Allman Brothers album “Eat a Peach”. Allman never heard the finished song; he died in a motorcycle accident before the album came out. Kottke takes this quiet gem and makes it an homage on the Live CD, supplementing the original themes and riffs with small ornaments and a bridge section that allows his compositional genius to show through.
At the end of every show, Leo Kottke holds his two simple acoustic guitars aloft as the audience once again applauds the Armadillo he and they have found lurking there. Pick up one of his CDs and discover it yourself.
— Guest Butler Michael P. Krupa is a psychologist and health care consultant from Concord, Massachusetts, whose interests include music, photography and poetry.
To buy “Leo Live” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “My Father’s Face” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “One Guitar, No Vocals” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Leo Kottke, Home and Away” from Amazon.com, click here.
