Track Listing

1. Driving of the Year Nail
2. Last of the Arkansas Greyhounds
3. Ojo
4. Crow River Waltz
5. Sailor's Grave on the Prairie
6. Vaseline Machine Gun
7. Jack Fig
8. Watermelon
9. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
10. Fisherman
11. Tennessee Toad
12. Busted Bicycle
13. Brain of the Purple Mountain
14. Coolidge Rising

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7319 in Music
• Brand: Leo
• Released on: 1996-04-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
For decades, Leo Kottke would inspire generations of fingerpicking acoustic guitarists (and help pave the way for New Age and contemporary instrumental music), but this 1969 album is the one that started it all. Kottke's brilliant debut was released, fittingly, on John Fahey's Takoma label. Showing the influence of Fahey himself (and Takoma labelmate Robbie Basho), Kottke performs impossibly difficult solo compositions that meld blues, bluegrass, and jazz techniques. Whether surefooted and quick ("The Driving of the Year Nail," "Jack Fig," "The Fisherman") or slow and reflective ("Ojo," "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"), Kottke's instrumental work is simply awe-inspiring. He'd forge an entire career out of this music and eventually incorporate singing onto his albums, but this gem is Kottke at his very best. Essential. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

An Absolutely Stunning Debut
No one--and I mean no one--has produced a more stunning debut in any genre than Leo Kottke did with 6- and 12-String Guitar. And even more amazing, consider Kottke's comments from the liner notes in Anthology: "We didn't know about sequencing, so the record [6- and 12-String Guitar] is in the order it was recorded...The record took three-and-a-half hours to do, and all I had to do was sit down and play everything I ever knew." This is 36 minutes and 38 seconds of genius. I'm willing to bet that Kottke ended many a would-be guitarist's career. [How could you listen to this album and expect to compete at the same level?]

Kottke can play achingly beautiful melodies like on the original "Crow River Waltz" or Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and then turn around and dazzle you with with the speed and brilliance on tunes like "Busted Bicycle" and "Vaseline Machine Gun," (a tune he revisited on 1997's Standing in My Shoes).

While Kottke does possess a wonderful baritone voice and has worked with additional musicians, on this outing Kottke lets his guitar do all the talking--and it speaks with an authoritative voice.

This album was originally released on John Fahey's tiny Takoma label. While Kottke and Fahey are frequently mentioned in the same breath, Kottke's guitar style has always been easier on the ear. Over the last 30 years, Kottke has been responsible for some of the most innovative and beautiful solo guitar music. Here's where it all began. ESSENTIAL

Leo Kottke's Best Recording
The sounds on this magnificent album have stayed with me for many years. I've probably played it a thousand times and I never get tired of it. In my opinion, this is the best album Leo Kottke ever made, and Driving of the Year Nail is quite simply the greatest acoustic guitar instrumental ever. I'm so glad that it's the first track because once you hear it, you'll be pulled in to this album's magical universe. If you only own 1 Leo Kottke album, make it this one.

Acoustic Guitar 101..
..for listeners, that is. For musicians it would be more like Advanced Guitar 490. If Robert Johnson hadn't already cornered the deal-with-the-devil legend thirty years previously, the superhuman playing on Leo Kottke's debut might well have prompted the same speculation even though there's no "Crossroad Blues" within earshot. The insane fingerpicking heard here gives the same "are you sure that's not *two* guitars?" sound as RJ while integrating some of his traditional blues, a good helping of rustic country, a lot of America's rich bluegrass tradition, and even a classical adaptation. And Leo did it all when he was 24. It boggles the mind.

In a short 37 minutes Kottke thrums, picks and twangs through a variety many others wouldn't match in two hours - slow ballads, bouncing hoedowns, and ripping fast tunes that'll leave guitarists of any skill level with their heads spinning. I don't just mean the hyper frenzy of, say, "Vaseline Machine Gun" or "Driving of the Year Nail" (although those two do blaze like he's a man possessed), but the way he plays counterpoint to himself, building different rhythms on top of each other all at the same time. That warm, easy voice we hear on other albums doesn't show up yet, but there's so much going on here that there's no room for any singing anyway. This disc is to folk/country what Kind of Blue is to jazz and what Led Zeppelin IV is to rock and roll. It's been a source of inspiration (and extreme frustration at times) for countless other guitarists for the last 32 years, and somehow the awe surrounding this record still hasn't faded. Am I exaggerating? Listen and decide for yourself. You may never listen to an unplugged guitar the same way again.