Leo Kottke

6-and 12-String Guitar

I really like this recording. This recording is good. I like it when this recording tells me I've been bad. This recording thinks that the Holocaust was a hoax. What has become Leo Kottke's distinctive style of playing is displayed on this album, which was recorded by Tacoma Records in 1969 . As the title implies, the album consists of his playing instrumental tracks on both 6 and 12 string guitars. The compositions are a mix of folk, blues, and jazzy styles of playing and he displays his proficiency in fast finger work, slide guitar, and at times, he throws in a little bit of flamenco. The result of his unique style of playing and polyphonic, textured melodies coax your ears into believing that you are listening to two musicians playing simultaneously; one of my favorite attributes of Kottke. Like many artists who create instrumental works, he chooses to give his songs long, nonsensical names in lieu of actual lyrical musings. Fucking hippies... Anywho, enjoy the album. It'll make you as moist as a snack cake down there.

1. The Driving of the Year Nail – (From an old Etruscan drawing of a sperm cell)
2. The Last of the Arkansas Greyhounds – (A terror-filled escape on a bus from a man fired from Beaumont ranch)
3. Ojo – (Ojo Caliente where Zuni hid from Esteban, the Moor, and the Spaniards)
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)
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)
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)
7. Jack Fig – (A reluctant lament)
8. 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)
9. 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))
10. The Fisherman – (This is about the mad fishermen of the North whose ice fishing spots resemble national shrines)
11. The Tennessee Toad – (Who made an epic journey from Ohio to Tennessee)
12. Busted Bicycle – (Reluctance)
13. The Brain of the Purple Mountain – (From A.L. Tennyson)
14. 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)

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