Mild Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke - Great Big Boy (1991) {Private Music 01005-82087-2}
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© 1991 Private Music | 01005-82087-2
Finger-Picked Guitar / Progressive Folk / Jazz Blues / Contemporary Folk / New Acoustic

Leo's masterpiece–really! Fabulous song writing–more poignant and funny than weird–arresting melodies and typically good guitar work. His voice is at its best and the lyrics are a marvel. There are a couple mood pieces, but mostly he tells great stories, about dying migrants, yappy dogs, funerals, deflated wealth and a guy looking for hippie chicks. It came out in 1991, and I thought it was better than anything that arrived in the decade that followed.

Leo Kottke - Chewing Pine (1975) {Capitol–One Way Records S21-18461 rel 1996}
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© 1975, 1996 Capitol Records / One Way Records | S21-18461
Finger-Picked Guitar / Progressive Folk / Jazz Blues / Contemporary Folk / New Acoustic

I own most of Leo's albums and have been a huge fan for more years than I care to mention. 6&12 String Guitars is truly a classic, but I find the songs on this album even more entertaining. My absolute favorite is Grim To The Brim. It is an explosion of the most fantastic guitar playing I have ever heard. Rebecca and Trombone are also quite beautiful. Don't You Think, written by the late, great Marty Robbins is divine, with wonderful piano by Bill Barber. All the songs are great and this album is truly a MUST HAVE!!!

Leo Kottke - Live In Europe (1980) {Chrysalis–BGO Records BGOCD265 rel 1995}
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© 1980, 1995 Chrysalis / BGO Records | BGOCD265
Finger-Picked Guitar / Progressive Folk / Jazz Blues / Contemporary Folk / New Acoustic

Live in Europe is more of Leo Kotke doing what he does best – exemplary folk guitar. Listeners will be drawn to Kotke for his instrumental virtuosity, as on "The Train and the Gate," "Pen Country Joy: Theme and Adhesions," and others. His voice is more modest, yet pleasant, as evidenced on tracks like "Tell Mary." Also includes the wry audience favorite "Pamela Brown." ("Wonder where I'd be today if she had loved me too/probably be drivin' kids to school.") Fans who enjoy Kotke's earlier albums, like Ice Water and Chewing Pine, will also appreciate this follow-up.

Robbie Basho was one of the big three American acoustic guitar innovators, John Fahey and Leo Kottke being the other two. Basho was the least commercially successful of the three, but his influence and reputation has steadily grown since his untimely death in 1986 at the age of 45. And with good reason; for Basho's deeply spiritual approach, intellectual rigor, and formal explorations (among his goals was the creation of a raga system for American music), present a deeply compelling, multi-faceted artist. Basho was actually a college friend of John Fahey, and his early recordings (like Kottke's) were for Fahey's Takoma label. Following Fahey 's move to Vanguard, Basho followed suit, and released Voice of the Eagle and Zarthus for the label in 1972 and 1974, respectively (his most commercially successful records were made for the Windham Hill label later in the decade)./quote]

These are Landreth's earliest known recordings, half of them made in a single afternoon 1973 when he was just 22 years old, the other half recorded in 1977. They display Landreth in the wine of his youth, looking outward for inspiration, sounding more generally Southern than uniquely Louisianan. If you are seeking an album of Louisiana music, I suggest you look elsewhere. But if it is the long-lost first album of an acknowledged slide guitar king you seek, perhaps the finest of his generation, look no further. It is in your hands.