What better way to end Guitar Month than taking in a concert with the 12 and 6 string acoustic master Leo Kottke? He just recently performed in Santa Barbara, but the place was still packed with fans, some of them who saw him just a few months ago. So, what’s the allure?
I think I finally figured it out; His deep laconic vocal style, ambling and rambling stage presence and mix of American folk and pop music is an audible and sometimes visual embodiment of John Steinbeck’s classic Travels With Charley. Both in the book and with Kottke on stage, you are taken to rural American vistas where you meet characters that have made America the great yet quirky country that it is.
Kottke sits in his chair on stage with reading glasses (which he didn’t even know he was wearing until the very end), he makes you feel like you’re sitting in the back bed of Steinbeck’s truck as he plays wonderfully rich tunes like “Busted Bicycle” and “Ojo,” but also tells you that “I’m kinda just talkin’ to myself” as he relays vignettes like “Doc Watson told me my Low E was flat. It’s been flat ever since.” As a raconteur, he tells of friends with auditory hallucinations, and then does two different versions of “Pamela Brown,” one with a Delta slide sound and one that has “Orville Redenbacher Music” to it, dancing like a calliope. Did he KNOW he did two versions?
He’ll lull you with a story, confessing that “My best thinking begins with a digression,” and after talking about the difference between playing at funerals and weddings, he’ll make music that sounds like the flutter of leaves on a fall breeze during “Blue Dot” or reveal wondrously complex chords while picking, strumming and tapping the strings on “Gewerbebite.” He can make you feel like you just spent an evening at the local VFW, and are now pulling out to head for Missoula with homespun tunes like “Julie’s House” and “Ring” with his voice resonating like an extra from She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Yet for all of his avuncular attraction, it is the remarkable ease that he can play material as rich, American Pastoral and Blue Highway as he demonstrated on his classic “Vaseline Machine Gun,” which ended the evening with half of the audience impressed by Kottke’s fingers and the other’s by his Will Rogers wit. Not a bad combination to be remembered for.
Upcoming shows at Pepperdine include Roberta Flack Feb/6 and Betty LaVette Mar/4