Dennie
Well-Known Member
6 and 12 String Guitar -- SACD
Leo Kottke
1971/2004 Takoma Records
With the 1969 release of 6-AND 12 STRING GUITAR, Leo Kottke established his pre-eminence as a guitar virtuoso and composer of quirky, pop-inflected pieces. Harmonically adventurous and technically dazzling, this album showcases Kottke's penchant for infusing traditional elements of folk guitar with more modern, even impressionistic harmony and tonality. Kottke inspired a revolution in acoustic guitar playing, and this record provided the opening volley.
"The Driving of the Year Nail" starts things off with a relentless fingerpicked chug, featuring splashes of open harmonics executed with the delicacy of a ballerina. Kottke proceeds to combine the familiar with the strange--each of these brief pieces (around three minutes and under) has the effect of being simultaneously charming, and a little twisted. For example, "Vaseline Machine Gun" starts with "Taps" played with a bottleneck slide, then morphs into a thumb-and-slide frenzy. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is the exception, given a straight and loving reading on six-string guitar. This is pure steel-string joy, with liberal doses of irony and ecstasy.
Track Listing with Notes From Leo..... :eusa-clap:
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)
