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Finger Picking Superb

Interview with Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke appears as haggard as only a musician could after a protracted twelve hours of timetable re-arrangements and airport shutdowns. Watching the thin beads of sweat breaking across his brow - periodically being removed by a white towel - it is easy to forget that he has been voted the world's top acoustic guitarist by Guitar Player for the past three years. Also, though it might not be too relevant musically, the prurient among you will certainly be interested to learn that Playboy's readers voted him number two amidst the pickers in their most recent issue, five spaces ahead of Ry Cooder. Write on, rabbit!

He was on stage 45 minutes after arrival in Wellington and captivated, easily, a surprisingly full, and selective, house that had survived this blisteringly icy night with a display of consummate artistry.

From two feet, he is the straightest picture you could imagine. Shortish brown hair, somehow tousled, regular white cotion business shirt with ever so tiny rectangular imitation pearl buttons, brown shiny FBI shoes, and matching pants. He is friezed amidst the formica table and a light surrounded mirror in front of which is lined an array of celery and cheese and tomato.

You transcended the white folk guitar image years ago. How exactly would you describe the music that you're playing now'?

I haven't been able to think of a description for it, because I make it all up myself - the tunes and all - things I have stumbled into. And I don't know any more what they are to be called than anyone else. Except that it's a lot like what everyone else is doing with their guitars. People sitting around at home and playing, and working up a few tunes. It's sure nice. I've seen one house so far.

You were talking earlier tonight about music being a familial thing in your formative years. Did most of your musical influences come from within your own family?

Yes, but I think the reason is that all the crackpots are in your own family. I mean, in your family the real weirdos - you know - are right .... very relative. The closer in you get, the more colourful it gets. That's what I was driving at.

And the influence it's had on your music?

It just seems to be a part of the soup behind it, you know. If I weren't fascinated by stuff like that, I wouldn't have anything to play. It was the way I felt like, I think.

About what time did you run into John Fahey?

Oh. Let's see. I made a record for him, and it was released. We have got to get one like that. I met him after that Takoma record was released, probably '68 or '69. My guitar was stolen that night. My wife became pregnant either that night, or the night before, we have decided.

One of those weird cosmic circumstances?

Yes. It was all kinds of stuff. We were mobbed by wild dogs, or not wild dogs. Reed College, Minneapolis, has a population of liberated dogs and everybody feeds them and they mobbed the stage. We had a ball, but then the next two jobs we did together were miserable for me, because I was missing my... you know, the guitar.

So then you got on to Capitol, and a succession of LPs. Of those, which is your favourite?

Dreams and All that stuff

What about the live one... even... My Feet Are Smiling?

The live one I have is definitely one of my more popular ones, but I have gripes about it. Because some of my tempi were rushed. And that bothers me, because I really don't play like that. I did right then, at that time, but now my tempo... or rather, it's not just tempo - it's your grip - your overall foundation inside the tune as it is happening is what I've got. It wasn't quite in there on some of them. On some of the others it's just fine.

Dreams and All That Stuff. What inclined you towards that particularly?

It's the one record I've done where the production, I thought, worked absolutely right for what my goals were.

You've probably been asked this one a lot before, too, but how many guitars do you have?

Well, I've got more than I would like to say. My problem is, after my first guitar was stolen, I went out and bought anything that even slightly appealed to me, thinking I could work it into something... ah... total, and as a result I've accumulated a tremendous amount of wrecks, and oddities, and eccentricities of guitars.

You have a musical knowledge that is being added to this as well?

Yes. I started music when I played trombone, but I find that I appreciate - I'm learning more about music now that I'm not studying it anymore, but I play it all the time. I think about it all the time.

What was responsible for the shift from Capitol?

Because they required an album every six months on the first contract, and wanted to do the same on the second contract

Which is not a good company relationship...

Yes. It's just too much. I thought they wouldn't let me. I told them I wanted to take a little more time, because I had been dried out by that schedule, and they were getting closer to it. That's just why this next record is taking so long to come out, because I wanted to take some time to settle down.

John Fahey once said some uncomplimentary things about your singing voice. Do you find that there are any problems as far as vocals go now?

No. Not anymore. I'm real happy with my singing now. Unfortunately, it was me who proved that, and wrote it. John didn't like it, either, but he didn't get me in any grief about it. You have got to talk to John. He's brilliant. He never stops laughing if he's in a good mood.

When you work in the studio, do you work fairly quickly, or do you spend a lot of time over dubbing things?

Each record is different for me. Some take in a whole lot of work. Some it just takes me a couple of days. The Takoma record took three hours. It's mainly a matter of how prepared you are before you go in. And under my old schedule, with Capitol, I was never prepared so it was always a real struggle. Now, I'm working everything out live, and that's the old way to do it. I mean, guys never had a chance to record in the past. They just would get off the bus and do what they had been playing the last 30 nights in a row. Bobby 'Blue' Bland still records that way, and so do a lot of road r &b bands, and I'm doing it that way now, because it works best for me.

Most guitarists concentrate on one aspect. You, however, channel your energies into not only six and 12 string virtuosity, but also bottleneck and plectrum stylings.

Because I'm interested in all of them. There's no ulterior motive. My musical taste is, I think, good for me and it's very non-discriminatory. I mean, I don't automatically discount anything.

Did Pete Seeger have much of an effect on you?

Sure. Because he was, in the States, the only fellow recording any instrumental bar jo or guitar who had any amount of distribution. As a result he was there for quite a while. He was all you could get to listen to That's fortunate because he has a hell off a good attitude about it all. A lot of [unclear: peopl] today are a little too cool to remember [unclear: ho] much he had to do with them and that's... too bad.

How has the reaction been to the first Chrysalis album?

I'd say mixed. But then, to everybody it sounds different from the other stuff [unclear: I'v] done. And some people are real happy [unclear: wit] that, and some people were surprised by that, and I like it and, I feel, some people feel it's muzak. It's interesting because I have never done a record that has caused as many arguments as that one. For me that means something or the other. My gripe with that one is that it was mixed and mastered and pressed at 30 inches per second. The standard is usually 15. Ideall it should be about 20.

How is the new album (to be arranged, as was the Chrysalis Leo Kottke album, by Jack Nitzsche) coming along?

Oh, there. We have one melody in [unclear: min] that we are both thinking about, at least. It's going to take forever for us to actually get to work on it.

But you find the time you put into it pays off eventually...

"That handles eight hours in a car through New Zealand" interjects the promote.

(Takoma Records' motto is "Better Records Were Never Made", justly. Their address is PO Box 5369, Santa Monica. California 90405.)

Patrick O'Dea