Leo Kottke Looks Back at His Long and Uncategorizable Musical Journey

[Queequeg]

[From the July/August 2021 issue of Acoustic Guitar | By E.E. Bradman]

"In the last 50 years, I haven't been off the road for more than two months," says Leo Kottke. "Sometimes I think I'd love to never see another airport. But you know what? It never stops being a surprise that somebody wants to pay me to play."

Surprising words, indeed, from a man whose adventures on acoustic guitar have inspired at least three generations of musicians. A road trip through the places Kottke has visited since 6- and 12-String Guitar put him on the map in 1969 is dizzying: There are solo gems (1973's My Feet Are Smiling, 1981's Guitar Music, 1999's One Guitar, No Vocals, 2004's Try and Stop Me); full-band jams (including 1974's Ice Water and Dreams and All That Stuff, as well as 1975's Chewing Pine); effulgent '80s grooves (Time Step, My Father's Face), and big '90s pop (That's What, Great Big Boy, Peculiaroso). There's also a handful of live discs from the '60s through the '90s, a couple of orchestral moments (on 1976's Leo Kottke and with composer Stephen Paulus on 1990's Ice Fields), and thanks to YouTube, evidence of onstage magic with luminaries like Chet Atkins, Michael Johnson, Jerry Douglas, and Michael Hedges. Kottke's most recent release, Noon, is the third in a series of meditative, energetic, and sometimes humorous duets with Phish bassist Mike Gordon.
READ the full interview here