Leo Kottke at Turntable in Indianapolis on Thursday, June 12, 2025!
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 developing a love for the country-blues of Mississippi John Hurt, alongside the music of John Philip Sousa and Preston Epps, Kottke joined the Navy underage to be underwater. He 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 University 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 guitar in tow. "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 made his recording debut in 1968 with the LP Twelve String Blues, recorded on a Viking quarter-inch tape recorder for the Scholar's tiny Oblivion label (which released only 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 and Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure at Capitol. Albums like Greenhouse (1972), My Feet Are Smiling (1973, live), and Ice Water (1973) saw him expanding his sound with guest musicians and honing his unique guitar technique.
With 1975's Chewing Pine, Kottke reached the U.S. Top 30 for the second time and gained an international following through continuing tours in Europe and Australia.
In 2002, his collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Clone, caught audiences’ attention. The duo followed with Sixty Six Steps, recorded in the Bahamas and produced by Prince producer David Z.
Kottke has been honored with two Grammy nominations, a Doctorate in Music Performance from the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the University of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College.
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