🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, it's time to summarize  the  comments I got on Leo Kottke  albums,
and go out and buy a couple.

The consensus:						       Buy    Skip
							       ---    ----
"Leo Kottke"							2	0
	His first album.  No vocals.

	Some  people  I've  heard  call  this the  Armadillo
	Album, because  there's a drawing of an armadillo on
	the cover, in white on a black backgraound.

"Leo Kottke 1971-1976: Did You Hear Me?"			1	0
	This is a collection  of his better  tracks from the
	early 70's.

"My Feet Are Smiling"						1	0
	It contains many examples of his amazing fingers.

"Greenhouse"							2	0
	This is the one I'd really reccomend.  This includes
	some if his  finest  high-speed  picking,  I  think.
	There  are 4 vocals,  but they  don't  dominate  the
	album,  and I even like his  vocal on Paul  Seibel's
	"Louise".  The instrumentals on this album were what
	first made me a fan of Kottke.

"Mudlark"							2	0
	Contains  some good  stuff, too.  About half of them
	have  vocals.  This was  recorded  with some  backup
	musicians - Ken  Buttrey,  Wayne  Moss, that  crowd.
	The last  time I made a Kottke  tape  for the car, I
	took select tracks out of "Mudlark" and "Greenhouse"
	to make up about  an  album's  worth  of  impressive
	guitar work.

"Ice Water"							1	1
	I don't like this one very  much.  Too many  vocals,
	his guitar work seems a bit rougher,  too.  This one
	gives the  impression of being  slapped  together to
	get an album out.  Another  point - a fair number of
	the  vocals  are  Kottke's  lyrics.  Just as I would
	agree that he is better when he's  playing than when
	he's  singing, I would also state that he isn't that
	great a songwriter.

Comments on Kottke's voice:

	While I've heard lots WORSE voices than  Kottke's, I
	agree with your  statement.  The standard quote that
	is  attributed  to Kottke is that he  describes  his
	voice as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".

	I don't think it's that bad.

General comments:

	Another  album to look for, one of his earlier ones,
	is  entirely   instrumental  and  uses  this  little
	description  [about  goose  farts] in the back cover
	notes  explaining  why Leo  Kottke's  voice does NOT
	appear on this album.  I can't  remember  the title,
	but that is an album to look for also.

Contributers:

decvax!mcnc!duke!jk at Duke University, Durham NC
decvax!mcnc!duke!amb at Duke University, Durham NC
hplabs!qantel!ptsfa!df at Pacific Bell, San Francisco
bellcore!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxv!nvuxh!nvuxa!nvuxr!ira (Ira Barron) at Bellcore
unisoft!mtxinu!bobm (Bob Mcqueer)
uw-beaver!tikal!prager (David Prager) at Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA
pesnta!pyramid!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-dairy!sharp (Don)

Thanks, everybody!

Steve Wolf				UUCP: {ihnp4|hplabs}!hpfcla!woof
Hewlett-Packard Company			ARPA/CSNET:   hpfcla!woof@hplabs
Fort Collins, Colorado			PHONE:		  (303) 229-2088