Last Friday night in Dallas--yeah, he has gotten older, but he's still my hero
This first time I saw Leo Kottke live was in 1972. I went with two friends who were there to see the main act, the Mahavishnu Orchestra. They had never even heard of Leo Kottke, who was 27 at the time.
In those days, Leo was the god of the 12 string guitar. He'd just sit down, pick up his 12 string, and just smile. Then, he would unleash a wall of virtuosity the likes of which I had never thought imaginable. Every tune full of melodic genius and imagination, speed and clarity, and he left the audience trying to figure out where the other four guys were that had to have been playing with him, because nobody could play like that solo. Except, he did. Not only that, he had a deep booming bass voice that was totally incongruous with his baby face.
I saw him several times over the decades, but it has been well over 20 years since I had seen him last. He is now 80, and he finally looks his age. A minor stroke has affected his singing voice, which he uses only sparingly, and he doesn't even go for the lightning speed of his early years. However, he still retains his perfect sense of melody and syncopation. His style is still unique, and has that "can't quite duplicate it" aspect that is the sign of true virtuosity. He doesn't imitate a style--he created one that countless other guitarists, including yours truly, have tried to imitate and failed miserably.
The audience in Dallas was in the hundreds, not the thousands of forty years ago, and the average age seemed to be somewhere between 60 and 70, several exceptions noted. But the place (the Kessler Theater) WAS sold out, and he didn't disappoint. After his last number, we weren't about to let him go, although we had to clamor for an encore for almost five minutes. When he finally came back, he explained that we weren't supposed to do that, because the last piece of his program WAS the encore. We laughed, but didn't let him go. To indicate that there would be one encore only, he came out with a six string guitar and did a soft, perfect note for note brilliant tribute to Duane Allman with "Little Martha."
It was an expensive detour I had to make to see him. I was near Chicago Friday morning, and was planning to return to Germany from there. But when I found that Leo Kottke was performing in Dallas Friday night, I changed things around, and flew back down here Friday morning (2 hours late due to a storm, of course). So, this morning (Sunday), I pack, again, and will take the Air France flight to Paris this afternoon, and then an onward flight to Düsseldorf a few hours after landing at CDG tomorrow morning.
I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to see Leo Kottke perform again, but if not, I'm happy to remember this show as a soft landing for one of the most influential and consequential American acoustic guitarists that ever lived.
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I have a funny story about Duane Allman's Little Martha. First though, Kottke called Little Martha "the most perfect guitar song ever written." Hard to disagree with that. Dickey Betts loved playing it, too.
But my story: My dog Sirius hated doorbells .. they drove him nuts. Play a descending major third on the piano or guitar, and Sirius would run to the door barking. In about 2003, I started a series of road trips between Dallas and Brevard, NC, to a mountain house we we had purchased in Transylvania County.
I always carried the two dogs with me on the trips to NC, Sirius and a young Nick-Nick, and a lot of CDs for the road. The Allman Bros. "Eat a Peach" was one of my favorite albums.
Well, I had to stop playing Little Martha because the guitar doorbell riff, a descending E-major third, drove Sirius wild. He wouldn't ride in a car kennel (but Nick loved the kennel cage, thankfully), so it was downright dangerous to have Sirius hopping all over the car barking at a doorbell. And it happens at least twice in the song.
Back to Leo Kottke .. his was the best ever cover of Little Martha.
I had the honor of seeing him in concert once.
I love his use of alternate guitar tunings.