thumb|Kottke at the [[Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, California, January 27, 2007]]
Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an American acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He has overcome a series of personal obstacles, including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand, to emerge as a widely recognized master of his instrument. He resides in the Minneapolis area with his family.
Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone described by himself as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day". In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on six- and 12-string guitars.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in Athens, Georgia, Kottke moved with his parents so frequently that he was raised in 12 different states. As a youth living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he was influenced by folk and delta blues music, notably that of Mississippi John Hurt.
Kottke attended the University of Missouri for two semesters, where he was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He left Mizzou after his second semester.
After being discharged from the Naval Reserve because of his partial loss of hearing, Kottke attended St. Cloud State College (now St. Cloud State University), in Minnesota, but left before completing his studies, choosing instead to hitchhike around the country, busking for a living, before finally settling in the Twin Cities. He arrived at the Scholar Coffeehouse in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis in the autumn of 1966, and soon was a regular performer. As a result, he changed his picking style to a classical style, using the flesh of his fingertips and increasingly small amounts of fingernail rather than fingerpicks, and changing the positioning of the right hand to place less stress on the tendons. A flat pick is often used in conjunction with his fingers, a style called hybrid picking. He has studied more classical and jazz-oriented compositional and playing techniques.
He took a long break from recording and performing, and simultaneously moved from his relationship with major labels to the smaller Private Music label. Private Music was considered a new-age music label in the Windham Hill style, and Kottke often found his music categorized as such during this period. After the reflective A Shout Toward Noon, in 1986, he took a brief break from recording before returning with Regards from Chuck Pink in 1988.
Later career
Kottke released an album annually from 1989 to 1991: My Father's Face, followed by That's What, and then Great Big Boy, which featured guest appearances by Lyle Lovett and Margo Timmins. Two years later, he returned with Peculiaroso, produced by Rickie Lee Jones. The solo album One Guitar, No Vocals was released in 1999. In 2004, Kottke released another solo album, Try and Stop Me (2004).
In 2002, Kottke and Mike Gordon (the bassist from the band Phish, which was on an extended hiatus) collaborated on Clone, an album featuring instrumental work and vocals from both musicians. A second album from the pair, Sixty Six Steps, followed in 2005. The duo toured in support of both albums. In August 2020, Kottke and Gordon announced a new collaborative album, Noon, released that month on Megaplum/ATO Records. It was their first collaboration since Sixty Six Steps and Kottke's first studio album since 2005.
Kottke received an honorary doctorate in music performance from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee on May 18, 2008, where he gave the commencement address. thumb|Kottke at City Winery, New York City, March 2014
Tunings
Kottke's guitars are often tuned unconventionally; early in his career, he heavily used open tuning, while in recent years, he has used more traditional settings, but often tunes his guitars as many as two full steps below standard tuning.
Orchestral works, re-recordings, and other collaborations
In 1976, Kottke collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche on the release Leo Kottke, which featured Kottke backed by a small orchestral section on a number of tracks. In the later part of his career, he has begun reworking and re-recording tunes he wrote and recorded in the early 1970s.
Kottke combined previously recorded tunes into new compositions, notably the minisuite "Bigger Situation", also released on One Guitar No Vocals. In 1990, Kottke and composer Stephen Paulus created Ice Fields, a work for amplified acoustic guitar and orchestra in a concerto format. Ice Fields featured five movements, each based on an existing Kottke composition, with orchestral backing and interlude sections. It was premiered by Paulus's Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and has been performed occasionally since, but has not been released on record, partly because of the high cost of producing a recording with a full orchestra.