![]() He was encouraged by award-winning author and Syracuse University creative writing professor George Saunders, who was struck by Kottke’s e-mails and introduced him to an editor. “I’ve got a couple things - two vocals and three instrumentals - that wouldn’t have happened. Moreover, being off the road and not having to think about the next concert has expanded his musical palette. “This guitar makes music for you,” Kottke said, his smile apparent over the phone. One of the reasons Kottke is excited to record again is because he has a new six-string acoustic guitar with a smaller body, crafted to his specifications by Kevin Muiderman, a Grand Forks, N.D., cosmetic surgeon who is a luthier in his spare time. Kottke and Gordon are also discussing another collaboration. Kottke acknowledges that “Noon” “woke up the recording appetite in me.” He’s now working on a record with Minneapolis percussionist Dave King, who plays with the Bad Plus and Happy Apple. He shares fascinating stories about both famous and obscure people, goes off on humorous tangents that he sometimes comes back to, delivers quotable quotes and arcane factoids, and never fails to captivate and entertain. It’s kind of exciting.”Ī conversation with Kottke is a bit like one of his solo concerts. “I hadn’t heard the word ‘publicist’ in - how long? - 30 years,” Kottke pointed out, with a mix of surprise and irony. Since the album was released digitally in August (the CD and vinyl versions are available Friday), Kottke and Gordon have done a few remote virtual performances to promote “Noon” - CBS’ “A Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concerts” and a program at the Grammy Museum - even though they were in their own respective hometowns. ![]() This thing had 40 or 50 years before it came out in the lyric.” I was never going to write about it because it was too close. “The lyric turns out to have been a recapitulation of someone I knew who is no longer here. It’s sort of a samba or mambo by way of Hennepin Avenue,” said Kottke. It’s about watching a terminally ill person live out their life. One of the highlights of the album is Kottke’s “Noon to Noon,” with its melancholy, poetic shades of Leonard Cohen. And they cover the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” (Kottke was never happy with the version he released in 1971) and Prince’s “Alphabet St.” (Gordon always loved the groove, though they give it a Grateful Dead-like treatment). Yet, they relish the risk-taking and the collaboration.įor “Noon,” Gordon wrote three songs, and Kottke penned six tunes (including “From the Cradle to the Grave,” which he first recorded in 1972). “We are both outside of our comfort zones when we’re playing together,” Gordon pointed out. Gordon has played nearly 2,000 gigs in one band or another. Kottke has performed thousands of gigs solo. They’re opposites when it comes to concertizing, too. At Phish shows, I’d take a golf cart out and meet the fans.” ![]() “Leo is relentlessly reclusive,” said the bassist, 20 years his junior. “We just enjoy each other’s company and creativity,” said Gordon, who has done two duo tours with Kottke. “It all revolves around friendship,” said Kottke, who traveled to Vermont, New Orleans and Burbank, Calif., for the sessions. “So we talked about it for 10 years and, for about four or five years, we worked on it - slowly.” “There was still some business for us to conduct,” Gordon said last weekend from his Vermont home. But Gordon, the Phish bassist who had made two previous albums with Kottke, never gave up. The Minnesotan, who was inducted in the Guitar Player Hall of Fame in 1978, didn’t even think he’d be making albums anymore even though he released more than 30 (including live records and soundtracks) between 19. That’s how many years have passed between albums for Kottke, who is finally celebrating a new one, “Noon,” with collaborator Mike Gordon. “If I can’t see the guitar, I don’t feel right. He also reads books and listens to podcasts, especially about books. ![]() In fact, he picks up a guitar before he even gets out of bed. So these days Kottke spends a lot of time in his Minneapolis apartment playing the instrument that made him world-famous. “And I’m finding out that I had no idea how many airports I was carrying around on my back.” “I’ve fantasized what it must be like to be in one place again,” said Kottke, who settled in Minnesota in the 1960s after attending St. Because, before the current pandemic, never in the past 52 years had the road warrior been in one place longer than two months. “The 40th year? I have no calendar recall,” said Kottke. Numbers don’t mean much to Leo Kottke, Minnesota’s forever guitar hero, until he starts to think about them.įor example, this year would have marked his 40th annual Thanksgiving-time Twin Cities concert if not for COVID-19.
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