6- and 12-String Guitar

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6- and 12-String Guitar
6- and 12-String Guitar cover
Studio album by Leo Kottke
Released 1969
Recorded Empire Photo-Sound, Minneapolis, MN
Genre Folk
Length 34:36
Label Takoma (C1024) (later as TAK 7024)
Professional reviews
Leo Kottke chronology
12-String Blues
(1969)		 6- and 12-String Guitar
(1969)		 Circle Round The Sun
(1970)

6- and 12-String Guitar is the second album by Leo Kottke, a solo instrumental steel-string acoustic guitar album originally released by John Fahey's Takoma Records in 1969. It is popularly known as the Armadillo album after the animal illustrated in the distinctive cover art (by Annie Elliott). Although Kottke has recorded dozens of additional albums, 6- and 12-String Guitar remains Kottke's best-known album and for many of Kottke's devoted fans it is the definitive album for the artist, if not the whole genre.

The album showcases Kottke's hard-driving polyphonic finger-picking style (which eventually led to him developing tendonitus and having to change to a more "classical" style, though glimpses of this earlier approach still occur). Even at the fastest tempos the notes are clean and crisp, with a distinctive tone. True to its title, the album contains performances on both 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars, some using a slide. Although Kottke has included vocals in other albums, this album is all instrumental — the liner notes contain Kottke's famous apology that his voice "sounds like geese farts on a muggy day."

According to legend, the album was recorded live in the studio, all in a single 8-hour session, in exactly the running order heard on the album, with minimal false starts or discarded takes. There is one track ("The Sailor's Grave on the Prairie") where a string breaks in the middle of the song, but Kottke keeps on playing.

The song titles (and liner notes) illustrate Kottke's twisted sense of humor and his love-hate relationship with putting names to his works. All the tracks were written by Kottke except Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Kottke's arrangement of the familiar Bach piece.

Kottke still accommodates his fans' appreciation of the album by including one or more of its tunes in the playlist at his frequent live performances.

This album has been re-released as an SACD.

Contents

[edit] Liner notes (by Leo Kottke)

"Leo Kottke was born in Athens, Georgia on the morning of September 11, 1867. Beyond that point his history is unclear. He first turned up in East St. Louis where he tended bar for 15 minutes and played his guitar -- his first 12-string, a Mexican cheapy with a nail behind the 12th fret -- for 5 minutes. He left in terror of constant requests for "Your Smile Is Like a Melody" and many more requests for his departure. (Three years later in 1965, while languishing in the indolent splendor of the Warrenton Country Music Festival in the jungles of Virginia, Kottke was heard to comment, "'Your Smile Is Like a Melody' is obviously one of the finest songs ever written." His face was still pale.)

When he was pre-school age his favorite songs were the "Red River Valley," the "Washington Post March" and "The Blue Tango." He obviously had not changed by the time of his internment as a 10-year-old in Wyoming when he declared his love for "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (Gene Autry and The Sons of the Pioneers) and Floyd Perkins. Yet this was the year, his eleventh or so, that sealed his fate and wrenched him from a course obviously headed for the immortality of a bathroom wall. It was the year he squashed his hand in a car door, second-degree burned his nose while shagging golf balls in Lincoln, Nebraska, fell out of a treehouse, and beat up Herby Stipe. These are, of course, ordinary events in any boy's life; but for a lad who only 2 years before had gotten lost in a ravine while trying to learn how to whistle, they were harbingers of reality.

Luckily, these events were followed by a move to Muskogee, Oklahoma where Kottke, due to the hostile reaction of the natives when confronted by strangers, became a recluse, gave up the trombone (the trombone was a major reason for Kottke's hostile reception) and took up the guitar. His first had a cowboy stenciled on the front.

Being a recluse, nothing more after this point can be seen of his development. Until the disturbance in East St. Louis, Kottke is for all intents and purposes nowhere and nothing. (He was the first to admit this when confronted by interviewers in Fort William, Canada after his abortive attempt to stowaway on a boat leaving to tour Lake Superior.) It may seem odd, with hindsight, that after being aroused by reality in Wyoming, Kottke should retreat from it in Oklahoma. But consider Oklahoma, and then consider Kottke's trombone. Finally consider Kottke's voice which sounds like geese farts on a muggy day.

All that is left to be said is that Kottke's voice does not appear on this album. His guitar does."

[edit] Track listing (with Kottke's notes)

[edit] Side one

  1. "The Driving of the Year Nail" - 1:54 ("From an old Etruscan drawing of a sperm cell")
  2. "The Last of the Arkansas Greyhounds" - 3:18 ("A terror-filled escape on a bus from a man fired from Beaumont ranch")
  3. "Ojo" - 2:14 ("Ojo Caliente where Zuni hid from Esteban, the Moor, and the Spaniards")
  4. "Crow River Waltz" - 3:20 ("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" - 2:34 ("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" - 3:11 ("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")

[edit] Side two

  1. "Jack Fig" - 2:14 ("A reluctant lament")
  2. "Watermelon" - 3:12 ("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. "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (J.S. Bach) - 2:24 ("The engineer called this the ancient joy of man's desire. (Bach had twenty children because his organ didn't have any stops)")
  4. "The Fisherman" - 2:32 ("This is about the mad fishermen of the North whose ice fishing spots resemble national shrines")
  5. "The Tennessee Toad" - 2:40 ("Who made an epic journey from Ohio to Tennessee")
  6. "Busted Bicycle" - 2:48 ("Reluctance")
  7. "The Brain of the Purple Mountain" - 2:11 ("From A.L. Tennyson")
  8. "Coolidge Rising" - 2:50 ("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")

All songs by Leo Kottke except as noted

[edit] Personnel

  • Leo Kottke - 6- & 12-string guitars

Cover design by Annie Elliott (who also did the cover for 12-String Blues)

[edit] External links