Guitar standouts join forces to create acoustic album

Guitar standouts join forces to create acoustic album
September 16, 2005 - Asheville Citizen-Times
By Jedd Ferris

Legendary guitarist Leo Kottke joins Mike Gordon from the now-defunct Phish for a Monday night date at The Orange Peel.
Sometimes the oddest pair makes the greatest couple. That¹s the way it¹s worked out for Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon. Kottke is a modern folk hero who has earned international renown for three decades of honing a unique finger-picking style on the 12-string guitar and an infectious dry wit that runs through his quirky songs. Gordon on the other hand comes from the recently defunct mega jam band Phish, where he developed a reputation as an eccentric note-heavy technical bass innovator.
The duo is touring right now, stopping at The Orange Peel on Monday night, in support of their second release ³Sixty Six Steps,² which just hit stores in late August. Rehearsing in Costa Rica and recording at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, Kottke and Gordon hammered the disc out through a two-month island vacation. As a result the experimental acoustic record, which also features Compass house drummer Neil Symonette in the mix, has a breezy calypso undertone ‹ something Gordon wanted to capture in remembrance of childhood vacations. Along with an equal proportion of penned originals from both players, the album also features inventive takes on Pete Seeger¹s ³Living in the County² and Aerosmith¹s ³Sweet Emotion.²
Ahead of the show, the always-interesting Kottke took a few minutes to answer some questions.
QUESTION: What was your first impression when Mike approached you to collaborate?
ANSWER: I didn¹t know Phish existed when we met. He gave me a book (of short stories) he wrote called ³Mike¹s Corner.² In it he used the word eleemosynary (an adjective meaning relating to charity). There¹s probably no one else on Earth that knows that the word exists let alone what it means, so I figured if he had stumbled across it somehow we would get along.
Q: As a career solo artist, how is it for you sharing musical space with Mike?
A: It¹s usually always a problem for someone to play with me, because I¹m a real road hog. I cover the 2s, the 4s, the roots and the melody line, so I¹m constantly stepping on people¹s toes or misbehaving in terms of how you can play with an ensemble. Mike is a unique bass player who doesn¹t fill the standard bass role, and it¹s a thrill for me. Some people play because they are musicians, and he is a musician. I am not. I¹m a self-taught backwater of self-involvement. It¹s a stretch for me playing with other people, and one that is a benefit the more I get to do it.
Q: What kind of island feel were you going for with ³Sixty Six Steps²?
A: Mike heard a kind of calypso feel in some of my stuff. He pointed it out one day, and it threw me. I had been looking for real calypso when I first started playing, because it has a way of pushing and dropping beats like some of the better bluegrass guitar soloing out there. There are not many people who do it, because it¹s kind of mysterious and takes a level of being split brained. You have to outsmart your right hand to avoid that peg leg quality, and when it happens you get a really infectious tricky kind of bounce. It wasn¹t that we were trying to get an island sound or make an island record, and I don¹t think we did. But Mike wanted to get what he remembered as a kid in that kind of adding and dropping beats and the front-end exuberance that isn¹t common to the way drumming is done in the states.
Q: Something that surprised everyone was the cover of Aerosmith¹s ³Sweet Emotion.² How¹d that come about?
A: Mike brought it up when we were rehearsing in Costa Rica. We were sitting around just goofing around and it popped up. With these things you just throw them on the wall, and see if they stick. That stuck. We didn¹t listen to the original. It¹s not worth hearing the original if you¹re going to cover something.
Q: This summer you played some jam band festivals with Mike. How did the crowd compare to your fans?
A: The crowds are all the same. There really is no difference for me so far, at least at any place I¹ve played around the Earth. You don¹t need a common language. There¹s something about music that doesn¹t know who¹s who, and I don¹t think it ever will.

Article Copyright © 2005 Asheville Citizen-Times