By Marv Wells
No singing. No backup band. No accompaniment of any kind. Just exactly what the album cover says… 6- & 12-String Guitar. Pure and simple.
Forty-three years ago, a young Leo Kottke recorded his second album, his first and only for Takoma Records, an obscure label founded by an eccentric master of the guitar, John Fahey. Who knew this album would go on to sell more than 500,000 copies (the best-selling title in the Takoma catalog) and become one of the top five sellers in the history of solo steel-string guitar recordings?
“The Driving Of The Year Nail”, the first song on the album, is a tasty appetizer, with which Kottke gets the opportunity to show off his speed, complexity, and light touch on the strings, alternating between hard-driving and angelic picking.
Some songs are fast-paced and upbeat, such as “Vaseline Machine Gun”, “Coolidge Rising” or “Busted Bicycle”, which sound as if Kottke is in a race with someone or something, almost frenetic at times. Others are a little more relaxed, such as “The Brain Of The Purple Mountain” or “The Fisherman”, right for listening to on a sunny, carefree day. “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, the only non-original song on the album, has a reverential (but not heavy) tone to it, showing off Kottke’s light touch on the guitar strings.
One song, “The Sailor’s Grave On The Prairie”, more than any other, subtly demonstrates Kottke’s prowess. Near the end of the song is an odd sound…that of a guitar string breaking. Leo doesn’t miss a beat and keeps on playing as if nothing happened. How many players can do that?
Then there is the cover (a black and white drawing of an armadillo, hence the album often being called “the armadillo album” and the liner notes about the individual songs (often enigmatic and surreal) and a short biography of Kottke, entertaining, but mostly, if not totally, unbelievable.
Also unbelievable is that this album, recorded in just three hours, still has me listening in awe, fascinated as much by Kottke’s pure virtuosity and sound as thefirst time I heard it, 41 years ago. How many albums can a person say that about? Not many. That’s what makes 6- & 12-String Guitar an absolute must for every serious music aficionado.