6 And 12 String Guitar
Leo Kottke
1971 Tokoma Records - Stereo
Amazon.com essential recording
For decades, Leo Kottke would inspire generations of fingerpicking acoustic guitarists (and help pave the way for New Age and contemporary instrumental music), but this 1969 album is the one that started it all. Kottke's brilliant debut was released, fittingly, on John Fahey's Takoma label. Showing the influence of Fahey himself (and Takoma labelmate Robbie Basho), Kottke performs impossibly difficult solo compositions that meld blues, bluegrass, and jazz techniques. Whether surefooted and quick ("The Driving of the Year Nail," "Jack Fig," "The Fisherman") or slow and reflective ("Ojo," "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"), Kottke's instrumental work is simply awe-inspiring. He'd forge an entire career out of this music and eventually incorporate singing onto his albums, but this gem is Kottke at his very best. Essential. --Jason Verlinde
Side One
All songs written and composed by Leo Kottke, except where noted.
No. Title Length
1. "The Driving of the Year Nail" (From an old Etruscan drawing of a sperm cell) 1:54
2. "The Last of the Arkansas Greyhounds" (A terror-filled escape on a bus from a man fired from Beaumont ranch) 3:18
3. "Ojo" (Ojo Caliente where Zuni hid from Esteban, the Moor, and the Spaniards) 2:14
4. "Crow River Waltz" (A prayer for the demise of the canoe and the radar trap without which Federal prisons will have to be rebuilt to accommodate prepubescence) 3:20
5. "The Sailor's Grave on the Prairie" (Originally written to commemorate Nedicks and a Minneapolis musician's contempt for the three a.m. cheeseburger with a nickel slice of raw) 2:34
6. "Vaseline Machine Gun" (1) for waking up nude in a sleeping bag on the shore of the Atlantic surrounded by a volleyball game at high noon, and 2) for the end of the volleyball game) 3:11
7. "Jack Fig" (A reluctant lament) 2:14
Side Two
No. Title Length
1. "Watermelon" (While at Watermelon Park Music Festival I had the opportunity to play banjo in the middle of the night for a wandering drunk. When I finished he vomited — an astute comment on my playing. Made me feel very distinguished) 3:12
2. "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (J.S. Bach The engineer called this the ancient joy of man's desire. (Bach had twenty children because his organ didn't have any stops)) 2:24
3. "The Fisherman" (This is about the mad fishermen of the North whose ice fishing spots resemble national shrines) 2:32
4. "The Tennessee Toad" (Who made an epic journey from Ohio to Tennessee) 2:40
5. "Busted Bicycle" (Reluctance) 2:48
6. "The Brain of the Purple Mountain" (From A.L. Tennyson) 2:11
7. "Coolidge Rising" (While rising from the sink, cupboard doors opened and engulfed his head; while turning to the right to avoid the whole incident he walked into a refrigerator — which afforded a good chin rest for staring at some bananas in a basket)
