Leo Kottke- Guitar Music

The first track of this album is great. It’s called “Part Two” and I’ve been playing it for myself and others for years. I’ve gone on record as not being very much of an instrumental person, but this is the exception. I think part of that comes from seeing Kottke play the song in a video and seeing his look of concentration, but also the ease with which he made all these strange sounds come from his guitar. The man is a master.

I know just as much about guitar music as I do about oyster farming: only as much as my brother has shown me. My brother is the best guitar player I’ve ever seen, I take that as axiomatic, but Kottke comes close. He’s almost as good.

Kottke doesn’t seem constrained by convention as Chet Atkins or my brother. He has no problem playing with different tunings and different styles. He uses his slide like a paintbrush. He’ll start in drop D then drop further from there. This all results in a unique sound, like strings being plucked in space. He doesn’t play bluegrass like Chet, he doesn’t play medleys or jazz like Tommy Emmanuel, and he doesn’t play everything under the sun like my brother. He plays his own music, and it’s great.

That being said, this is a slow album. There are long sections that are slower or more melodic than I’d want them to be. He seems to have two settings on this album: smooth and melodic, like the series of “Suite Side One” songs, and fast and jagged like on “Part Two.” Those two actually come together in the final two songs, and the result is pretty satisfying. Too bad the rest of the album wasn’t like that.  

3/5 As great as “Part Two” is (and you should definitely check it out) the rest of the album only rarely lives up to its promise. Don’t get me wrong, this is a virtuoso performance from start to finish, I just think Kottke has a better album out there somewhere. And I’m going to find it.