Acoustic guitarist Leo KOTTKE WAS BORN IN ATHENS, Georgia, but left
town after a year and a half. Raised in 12 different states, he
absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with
both violin and trombone, before abandoning Stravinsky for the guitar
at age 11.After adding a love for the country-blues of Mississippi
John Hurt to the music of John Phillip Sousa and Preston Epps, Kottke
joined the Navy underage, to be underwater, and eventually lost some
hearing shooting at lightbulbs in the Atlantic while serving on the
USS Halfbeak, a diesel submarine.
Kottke had previously entered college at the U of Missouri, dropping
out after a year to hitchhike across the country to South Carolina,
then to New London and into the Navy, with his twelve string. "The
trip was not something I enjoyed," he has said, "I was broke and met
too many interesting people."
Discharged in 1964, he settled in the Twin Cities area and became a
fixture at Minneapolis' Scholar Coffeehouse, which had been home to
Bob Dylan and John Koerner. He issued his 1968 recording debut LP
Twelve String Blues, recorded on a Viking quarter-inch tape recorder,
for the Scholar's tiny Oblivion label. (The label released one other
LP by The Langston Hughes Memorial Eclectic Jazz Band.)
After sending tapes to guitarist John Fahey, Kottke was signed to
Fahey's Takoma label, releasing what has come to be called the
Armadillo record. Fahey and his manager Denny Bruce soon secured a
production deal for Kottke with Capitol Records.
Kottke's 1971 major-label debut, "Mudlark," positioned him somewhat
uneasily in the singer/songwriter vein, despite his own wishes to
remain an instrumental performer. Still, despite arguments with label
heads as well as with Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure on
Capitol, as records like 1972's "Greenhouse" and 1973's live "My Feet
Are Smiling" and "Ice Water" found him branching out with guest
musicians and honing his guitar technique.
With 1975's Chewing Pine, Kottke reached the U.S. Top 30 for the
second time; he also gained an international following thanks to his
continuing tours in Europe and Australia.
His collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, "Clone," caught
audiences' attention in 2002. Kottke and Gordon followed with a
recording in the Bahamas called "Sixty Six Steps," produced by Leo's
old friend and Prince producer David Z.
Kottke has been awarded two Grammy nominations; a Doctorate in Music
Performance by the Peck School of Music at the U of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee; and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing
the Trombone from the U of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost
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06/03/2020 Last update