Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke (born 11 September 1945, Athens, Georgia, U.S.) is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies. Kottke has overcome a series of personal obstacles including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his hand to emerge as a widely-recognized master of his instrument exploring several genres, while ducking any one label with his music.
Biography
As a youth living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kottke was influenced by the folk and blues that was influenced by the southern Mississippi delta in the United States. One blues player who was an influence on young Kottke was Mississippi John Hurt.[ Ankeny, Jason Accessed September 2, 2008 All-music Review] Kottke learned to play trombone and violin before moving to the guitar and developing his own unconventional picking style. A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged his hearing in his left ear,[ a condition that would be exacerbated during firing practice during his service in the United States Navy Reserve, when his other ear also was damaged as a result of the sound.][ Accessed on May 30, 2008Life in Northern Colorado interview, May 2007]
After being discharged from the Naval Reserve, due to his partial loss of hearing, Kottke attended St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota where he was known for skipping class and instead going to the auditorium and playing his guitar for hours on end.
He received an honorary Doctorate in Music Performance by the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee on May 18th, 2008, where he gave the commencement address.[OnMilwaukee, Guitarist Kottke receiving UWM honorary degree. Friday, May 30, 2008 Accessed on May 30, 2008.]
Music
Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke has sporadically moved in a vocal direction, singing in an unconventional yet expressive baritone famously self-described as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".[ 1994 James Jensen Interview Leo Kottke. Accessed on April 29, 2008.] In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on his signature 6- and 12-string guitars.
Kottke's guitars are often tuned unconventionally; early in his career he heavily utilized open tuning, while in recent years he has used more traditional settings but often detunes his guitars as many as two full steps below standard tuning.
Kottke's best-known album continues to be 1969's instrumental 6- and 12-String Guitar. This solo album is also known as the "Armadillo album" after the armadillo pictured on its cover, and as the "Takoma album" because it was released by independent label Takoma Records. Pressured in the early 1970s to be a folk singer-songwriter rather than an instrumentalist, he recorded with backing musicians on albums such as Mudlark, Ice Water and Chewing Pine. Some of this production sounds dated now, and in recent years Kottke has begun re-recording tunes he wrote and recorded in the early 1970s.[Anil Prasad Interview Getting to Mouth Off. Accessed on April 29, 2008.]
Injury and new playing technique
In the early 1980s, Kottke began to suffer from painful tendinitis and related nerve damage caused by his vigorous and aggressive picking style (particularly on the 12-string guitar).[James Jensen Interview Mr. Natural. Accessed on April 29, 2008.] As a result, he changed his picking style to a classical style, using the flesh of his fingertips and increasingly small amounts of fingernail rather than fingerpicks, and changing the positioning of the right hand to place less stress on the tendons. He also studied more classical and jazz-oriented compositional and playing techniques. Simultaneously, Kottke moved from his relationship with major labels Capitol and Chrysalis to the smaller Private Music label. Due to this change and the relationship with Private Music, Kottke's work during this phase was often grouped with New Age music in the Windham Hill style, although his music no more fits under that category than it does under Folk music.
Collaborations
Kottke has collaborated on his records with his mentor John Fahey, as well as with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Margo Timmins, Mike Gordon, and Rickie Lee Jones. He has recorded tunes by Tom T. Hall, Johnny Cash, Carla Bley, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Jorma Kaukonen, Kris Kristofferson, Randall Hylton, and many others. He is also a frequent guest on the radio variety program, hosted by Garrison Keillor; A Prairie Home Companion.
Recent work
In 2002, Kottke and Mike Gordon (then the bassist from the band Phish) collaborated on Clone, an album featuring instrumental work and vocals from both musicians. A second album from the pair, Sixty Six Steps, followed in 2005 (by which time Phish was disbanded). The duo has toured in support of both albums.["Kottke and Gordon: Calypso-Brushed Guitars" (interview and performance) by David Dye, from NPR's World Cafe November 24, 2005]
Discography
 12-String Blues (1969)
6- and 12-String Guitar (1969)
Circle Round The Sun (1970)
Mudlark (1971)
Greenhouse (1972)
My Feet Are Smiling (1973)
Ice Water (1974)
Dreams And All That Stuff (1974)
Leo Kottke, John Fahey & Peter Lang (1974)
Chewing Pine (1975)
1971-1976 (Did You Hear Me?) (compilation album) (1976)
Leo Kottke (1976)
The Best (1976)
Burnt Lips (1978)
Balance (1979)
Live in Europe (1980)
Guitar Music (1981)
Time Step (1983)
Voluntary Target (1983)
A Shout Towards Noon (1986)
Regards From Chuck Pink (1988)
My Father's Face (1989)
That's What (1990)
Great Big Boy (1991)
Essential (1991)
Peculiaroso (1994)
Paul Bunyan (with Jonathan Winters) (1994)
Live (1995)
Standing In My Shoes (1997)
The Leo Kottke Anthology (1997)
Hear the Wind Howl (released in England and Europe only) (1997)
One Guitar, No Vocals (1999)
Clone (with Mike Gordon, formerly of Phish) (2002)
(2003)
(2003)
Try And Stop Me (2004)
Sixty Six Steps (with Mike Gordon) (2005)
Videography
Home & Away (1988)
Home & Away Revisited (2006)
External links
Official Leo Kottke website
Unofficial Leo Kottke web site (fan site)
All Music biography of Leo Kottke, by Jason Ankeny
Latest Leo Kottke Concert Reviews and Photos on Concertology
1999 Leo Kottke interview by Anil Prasad
"Kottke and Gordon: Calypso-Brushed Guitars" by David Dye, from NPR's World Cafe November 24, 2005
Interview on Minnesota Public Radio November 9, 2007
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