By Ralph Greco, Jr.
I’m not so sure where Leo Kottke falls in the realm of musical styles. He’s certainly regarded as an accomplished acoustic guitarist, having played with everybody from Chet Atkins to Lyle Lovett to Mike Gordon of Phish fame (Check out the Gordon/Kottke CD Sixty Six Steps, perhaps the most overlooked album of recent years.) Through injuries and even surgery for the dreaded carpal tunnel, the guy has adjusted and relearned to develop what many consider one of the best finger-picking techniques of anybody around. His instrumentals run the gambit from country-flavored ditties to folksy vocal numbers (though Kottke claims his voice sounds like “geese farting on a muggy day”) to remakes like “Sweet Emotion.” Kottke has basically done everything a man can on twelve-string and six-string guitar.
But seeing Kottke live is a whole ‘nother thing entirely, and I had that privilege recently in New York City. First of all, the ‘venue’ — if you can call it that — was a church on Central Park West, called The Concert Hall, which is really part of a bigger building that houses the New York Society For Ethical Culture. Sitting in pews, my buddy Bob and I settled back as a bespeckled Kottke ambled onto the stage with his trusty Taylor 12-string and began to amaze.
The thing with Kottke is, unless you know his stuff very well (which I don’t, the dude has 31 albums to his credit, so it’s hard to keep track of the wealth of material he can choose from!) you won’t ever know what songs he’s playing as he never really reveals song titles. In fact, someone from the audience shouted out this very problem, and in his usual deadpan delivery, Kottke claims it just makes him think too much to have to think about what song he is playing when he is playing.
He did reveal one title though, an as yet un-recorded six-string workout (he had two guitars with him) called “Ants.” Kottke told us a story that the song was inspired by his recent reading of a book about the little guys. Another thing about Kottke — as my buddy Bob duly noted — is that half the fun seeing him live is hearing these stories. He has this odd down-home way of telling the oddest tales that sometime do relate to the song he is about to play (as was the case with “Ants”) and sometimes not. Mix this with the man’s obvious skill and feel and you walk away from a Leo Kottke performance fully entertained.
Much to my delight Kottke did perform “Rings” from Sixty Six Steps. For me, the highlight came when Kottke returned to the stage for his encore, sporting a slide. I was mesmerized with what I saw. Hearing Kottke do with his slide and his twelve-string on this last song, I was reminded of other players of this caliber — Jose Feliciano and Steve Morse are two who come to mind. It’s bad enough that Kottke detunes willy-nilly during the night or that he produces ringing notes I can’t even see him play. This last bit with his slide gliding effortlessly across the fret board truly brought home how connected this man is to the guitar.
I know it is the electric guitarists who get all the press. For years, the battle has raged between fans of Eric “Is God” Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. We can wax philosophical over what Hendrix might have produced had he lived or just how influential Eddie Van Halen really has been to a new crop of players. But guys like Kottke often go unnoticed to the general public. What a shame as he certainly fits in with the illustrious company of Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, et al.
