Leo Kottke - 6- and 12-String Guitar

For decades, Leo Kottke would inspire generations of fingerpicking acoustic guitarists (and help pave the way for New Age and contemporary instrumental music), but this 1969 album is the one that started it all. Kottke's brilliant debut was released, fittingly, on John Fahey's Takoma label. Showing the influence of Fahey himself (and Takoma labelmate Robbie Basho), Kottke performs impossibly difficult solo compositions that meld blues, bluegrass, and jazz techniques. Whether surefooted and quick ("The Driving of the Year Nail," "Jack Fig," "The Fisherman") or slow and reflective ("Ojo," "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"), Kottke's instrumental work is simply awe-inspiring. He'd forge an entire career out of this music and eventually incorporate singing onto his albums, but this gem is Kottke at his very best. Essential. --Jason Verlinde Amazon.com essential recording

6 and 12 String Guitar Leo Kottke

ESSENTIAL CD FOR A GUITARIST

Guitar playing does not get much better than this. A pure delight from start to finish, one of those CD you can play over and over and hear more and more amazing Rifts.

HMR Music Lover May 12, 2007

So you want to play the 12 string-2

Thought I did this once already, can't find it. Again, I've got maybe half of these tunes in my repertoire. If you play guitar like Leo, you too will get CTS, try doing a little Rory Block or Cory Harris - bust your voice a bit, not your left hand. Try to play like Leo, die. Or just say goodbye to your left hand after five years. There is nothing you have heard or ever will hear that is even in the same category as this album. But you need to buy "Greenhouse" to compliment it- "Last Steam Engine Train" and "Bean Time" should be included in any comprehensive early studies. So you think you know how to play guitar...guess again, bar rag breath, you're not even close. Unless you're an understudy of John Renbourne, you don't know diddly squat about the guitar until you have listeed and tried to learn this album.

Go into a bar with your 12 in a low C tuning. Play "Busted Bicycle". Get drunk for free. May 5, 2007

For guitar enthusiasts, absolutely indispensable

You have to understand, first off, that all those people who are calling the Armadillo album a "must-have record" or "the best solo guitar record ever" or "breathtaking speed and skill" are not exaggerating one tiny bit. This album is all that, and more. It is a watershed album ... when it came out, something fundamental changed in people's appreciation of what the guitar was capable of. It wasn't just the speed (which was astonishing) or the precision (which is impeccable). Tommy Emmanuel might be as fast, and Chet Atkins as precise, but Leo gives us something more.

What people generally miss is an appreciation of just how many musical genres Kottke has borrowed from and fused into his own unmistakable style. You can hear country, rock, blues, jazz, classical, Hawaiian slack-key ... and, I swear, even a bit of flamenco in there somewhere. It's all grist for his mill, and Kottke probably has more colors on his palette than any guitarist living or dead. And nobody had dared to blend so many of them, so deftly and confidently, into a single recording as he did on this one.

The marvel is that he has continued to develop this eclectic style over the years. Leo Kottke is one of a very, very few guitarists whose style you can identify within a few seconds, even if you've never heard that particular piece before. That he can continue to be this recognizable, yet still sound fresh and experimental, is what makes him a national treasure, and this album is the one that first showed it to us. March 26, 2007

The Holy Grail of Fingerpicking

It all starts here: anyone who plays knows that; for the sheer reckless abandonment that ultimately cost Leo his speed by way of carpal tunnel; for the articulate melodies and delightful possibilities; for the "what does THAT mean?" bewilderment over his liner notes that fueled our fuzzy minds. (Getting loaded on anything and listening to this was like going aloft like a kite.)

This is what sets Kottke (and later, the late Michael Hedges) apart: they truly understand the guitar as a percussive instrument. By the way, for those lucky to have seen Kottke concerts or found rare CDs of shows, his wandering comments onstage about song titles are often about the ingredients and inceptions of his work: hilarious monologues.

The tunes individually have unique personalities of energy, tones, and presentation: an auditory garden of flowers. Such technique and dexterity! Clarity! And fast--try doing the hop-scotch dance of harmonics that dazzles "The Driving of the Year Nail." It's his touch also--almost maddening for those who had been practicing (or wishing to play) and wondering how he made it sound so effortless and natural. "The Last of the Arkansas Greyhounds" rolls and bounces with a perpetual motion machine behind it (and alerting us to Leo's fetish for titles). "Ojo" is clean and bright, and I see images of an old grandmother-type with a shawl rocking an infant in a cradle over "Crow River Waltz." Leo's slide virtuosity is also introduced here on "The Sailor's Grave on the Prairie," and "Vaseline Machine Gun," an undulating gyration of leaping bottleneck instrumental tribute to a navy submariner buddy of Leo's that kicks off with a brief burst of "Taps").

"Jack Fig" is a treat to understand at this slow pace (it's a buzz saw in concert on My Feet are Smiling), but just as spectacular to see on video for his complex chording and picking. A close cousin is "Watermelon," and Leo's slide squawks show how well suited he is with a 12-string's tunings. Just to show he's done his studying, Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is showcased for its pristine timeliness--you almost want to bow in tribute. "The Fisherman," a gorgeous tune by its simplicity, just bounds along like a happy puppy out for a walk, but "The Tennessee Toad" (Leo's sly dig at his father-in-law), oozes with molasses-like whining slide.

But "Busted Bicycle" saves the day--and recharges everything/one. Inspired by a wayward car and a friend's chained-to-the-lamp-post 2-wheeler, Leo works in an old blues riff (hey--the Stones used it on the Beggars Banquet LP) around a banjo picking style with a 12-string explosion. (Check it out live; it's a fireworks display.) More Dali-like titles ahead: "The Brain of the Purple Mountain" and "Coolidge Rising," but they're both full of fast and clean picking that just reminds you to hit the repeat button when it's all over.

This is something to share because the guy is making the art of guitar playing sound magical--like it's a universal talent for us all to try. Inspiration at its highest.
February 21, 2007

An Essential

No point in wasting words over this one: it is simply stunning. A real essential in any guitar lover's collection. February 17, 2007

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