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.
Solo performer: Leo Kottke (acoustic 6 & 12-string guitars).
Recorded in 1969. Originally released on Takoma (1024). Includes liner notes by Mark Humphrey and original release liner notes by Leo Kottke.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Folk
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Track Listing:
A1 The Driving Of The Year Nail
A2 The Last Of The Arkansas Greyhounds
A3 Ojo
A4 Crow River Waltz
A5 The Sailor's Grave On The Prairie
A6 Vaseline Machine Gun
A7 Jack Fig
B1 Watermelon
B2 Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring
B3 The Fisherman
B4 The Tennessee Toad
B5 Busted Bicycle
B6 The Brain Of The Purple Mountain
B7 Coolidge Rising