Leo Kottke is 70 this year. 41 years later, this song still blows me away

[DFW]

If I hadn't seen him play this live, I would never EVER have believed this is only ONE guy playing guitar on this piece:

[MH1]

1. Leo Kottke is amazing

[Zorro]

2. Incredible player

It was a brisk night in the autumn of 1970, and after sharing a couple of bowls with friends at an off-campus apartment, our host told us we just had to listen to this then unknown guitarist playing his 12 string Bozo -- and he then put Kottke's "6 and 12 String Guitar" on the turntable.

It's a totally exquisite album, but it was "Vaseline Machine Gun" that really blew us away -- it was amazing that one person could play like that. What an astounding talent.

[DFW]

4. The "armadillo" album was recorded before he met Božo

It was done on old Gibsons etc. I forget exactly which. Fahey must have lent some to him to record the album.

By the time I first saw him, was WAS playing Božo guitars and I was so obsessed, the first time I was able (5 years later, when work took me out there), I sought out Božo, who was then in Southern California, and started having him make guitars for me. They were expensive (for the time--late 70s), but I knew they'd be instruments I'd be playing for the rest of my life.

I asked Božo how he was able to make such incredible guitars, and he said it took about 9 months and about $2000 worth of material to make a decent 12 string guitar. He was charging about $2800 for them. I told him I didn't see how he could ever make any money taking 9 months and $2000 for raw materials any only charging $100 a month for his work. A simple soul, all he saw was $800 profit per guitar. I explained to him that he was never going to get anywhere using that kind of math, and indeed, he never made any money even though he was one of the greatest luthiers of the 20th century.

Here are the last two he made for me, a matching pair:
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[hopemountain]

8. beautiful guitars

amazing detail.

[kristopher]

3. To quote the man himself:

He has "a voice like a goose farting".

IMO true perfection must include a blemish, and I've loved the entire music package since I first heard him 38 years ago.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. That's from the liner notes from his first album on Takoma Records. (Takoma Park, MD)

He wrote the liner notes on the back, which are hilarious. I still have my vinyl copy.
He said his voice sounded "like geese farts on a muggy day".

I saw him live twice in the 1970s and he's still amazing. He's the octopus of the guitar.

"I guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown" is a pretty funny song. "She dug me cuz I drove a pickup truck."

[Paladin]

5. One of my long-time favorites.

I'm like you---I saw him in concert with my own eyes and ears, and I still couldn't believe what he was getting out of that guitar. "Morning Is The Long Way Home" is a classic.

[clarice]

6. Leo is the SHIT !!!!!!!!! nt

[NNadir]

9. I always loved that song, but my favorite piece of his is...

the beautiful "A Child Should Be a Fish."

It's a weird name - Kotke, like Fahey had a penchant for the weird - but it's unbelievably beautiful, unbelievable.

I heard he has arthritis, but plays on.

I confess I haven't listened to him much in recent years, but now I'll go upstairs and dig out "Ice Water"



It may very well make my day. Thanks!

[DFW]

11. Cal Hand played on "A CHild Should Be A Fish"

I heard he did a solo album that bombed. Probably too good and introspective for commercial viability.

Kottke (A Czech name according to a cousin of his I once met) developed tendonitis long ago which forced him to abandon using finger picks ad change his manner of playing, but he switched to lighter guitars (Taylor) and kept on picking.

[Enthusiast]

10. I have a 45 year old Leo Kottke vinyl LP around here somewhere.

On it he did a version of Eight Miles High, I remember. Anyway, the record is too scratched up to play now.

[DFW]

12. That was on "Mudlark"

Not one of his more memorable albums, but with a few memorable pieces on it. Eight Miles High, Cripple Creek, Bourrée and, especially, Room 8, and his incredible "Stealing," with him overdubbing a duet with himself, one six-string at normal tuning with no capo, and the same guitar doing the second track with the capo on the third fret. It took me a long time to figure that one out!

[Enthusiast]

13. I remembered the name Mudlark once you reminded me.

I haven't listened to it for years.