Early Work from a Master

Leo Kottke is to the acoustic guitar what Hendrix was to the electric: when he burst on the scene with his debut Takoma album, "Six- and Twelve-String Guitar" in 1969, he redefined both instruments. This collection presents the best instrumentals of his earlier Capitol years (and in my opinion, all his albums up through the live "My Feet Are Smiling" are true classics). Omitted is his notorious "geese-fart" singing voice, a foghorn baritone that I didn't find as bad as reputed, though I still have always been partial to the instrumentals. This, and the companion "Chrysalis Years" volume, have been released by his current label, Blue Note, and they are both essential, especially if you don't have any Kottke in your collection. If you don't mind the geese farts (and he did record some pretty good songs with vocals, too), you may want to check out "Essential Leo Kottke" on Chrysalis (there are only a few common tracks with the new "Instrumentals" CD), or the excellent 2-disc Rhino collection, "Leo Kottke Anthology". Only the last one, by the way, contains any material from his Takoma debut.

Kottke at the Top of His Game

The 18 tracks on this hour-long CD are taken from the six albums Leo Kottke recorded for Capitol from 1971 to 1975, arguably the most productive five years of his career. While they are all instrumentals, they are not solo in that Kottke works with other musicians on about half of these tracks. It does not, however, detract from his guitar playing being prominently featured.

Kottke pays homage to John Fahey on a couple tracks: "Poor Boy" and "In Christ There Is No East Or West," which are the only two non-originals on the album. The latter is a special favorite of mine. Other standout tracks are the gogeous "Owls," the live "Medley" which concludes with the furiously-paced "Jack Fig," and perhaps one of Kottke's loveliest melodies, "Mona Ray," where Kottke is accompnaied by Michael Johnson.

While I have long been a fan of Kottke's rich baritone voice, it's nice to have this collection of instrumentals. And unlike the Chrysalis collection, there is no new material here. Just Kottke playing the hell out of his guitar. And when you stop to think about it, isn't that enough? It is for me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

One of our greatest instrumentalist doing what he does best.

Leo Kottke's "6 and 12 String guitar" fell to earth in 1969 and some of us have never been the same. The album became know as the armadillo album because of the cover art and put both Kottke and his label, Tacoma, on the map. In the liner notes on the album, Kottke describes his voice as being similar to "geese farts on a muggy day". After the armadillo album, Kottke would for the most part ignore his own advice and feature vocals on most of his songs. The compilation of instrumentals from 1970 -1975 when Kottke was recording on Capitol is the brainchild of Jerry Roche who apparently agrees with Kottke's original evaluation as do I. These are tracks compiled from Kottke's Mudlark, Greenhouse, My Feet Are Smiling, Dreams and All The Stuff, Ice Water and Chewing Pines albums. It show off Kottke in a fair number of settings including solo, accompanied only by dobro, pedal steel, bass or guitar. It also has him in trio and quartets settings. For my ears, the fewer players the better. The sound of what Kottke is doing with his six and twelve strings, with his flatpicking, fingerpicking and slide is all I really want to hear. The man is an orchestra unto himself.
He is also a wonderful writer who has created almost his own genre of music, a personal blend of country, folk, jazz, blues and classical.
If you have never heard of Kottke, please go directly to the armadillo album. You will name children after me, I promise. If you already have that then this CD and the second volume are a great addition to your collection.