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Portrait of Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

(1945) Singer United States

37 quotes in 297 categories

Leo Kottke is a singer from the United States, best known for 6 And 12 string guitar.

Quick Facts About Leo Kottke

Born: September 11, 1945
Nationality: United States
Profession: Singer
Notable works: 6 And 12 string guitar

About Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke 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.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Leo Kottke

I seem to find different material every four to six months and I frequently forget it which is a shame because it…

Be nice

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I have always thought of myself as a performer first and way down the line as a recording artist.

Art

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You can't really tell what the audience wants but you can tell what will keep everybodies attention in the same place.

Attention

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The first music I was exposed to was Stravinsky and I loved it but I don't remember it.

Exposed

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You can't really tell what the audience wants but you can tell what will keep everybody's attention in the same place.

Attention

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I will literally open my mouth not knowing what is coming out.

Coming

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I think if you are writing an instrumental you are dealing with more of an aesthetic in a sense but a lyric…

Aesthetic

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Musically, I am still hooked and just hypnotized by the sound of the guitar itself. I mean, a guitar sounds good if…

Guitar

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With all these great (guitar teachers) around here, don't cop their licks, COP THEIR ATTITUDE.

Attitude

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I don't spend a lot of time thinking of what they'll do musically, I try to imagine being locked into a windowless…

Fun

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I do have a library of events I can talk about and I always expect to find a different point of view…

Air

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The bulk of my set is instrumental and you have to give yourself and the audience some relief because a performance is…

Audience

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We spent a lot of time on that record with the sound and recorded it on the Paramount sound stage which is…

Away

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That was when I found out that you could talk to them and it was a whole other way to blow your…

Again

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There are nights when you can feel stale because you've fallen into a pattern by touring too much, but it's easy to…

Because

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I had been playing single note instruments and I wanted to hear a guitar played as a piano.

Guitar

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I was two and a half and my folks would put it on the record player and I would run around the…

Around

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I was taking a nose dive somewhere between eleven and twelve because my sister had died and I was practicing something that…

Died

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It depends on the time of the year and who I've been talking to, I try to put people in the studio…

Been

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It was a kind of paralysis you would get from tendonitis and I would last about five to ten minutes into the…

About

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I was required by Capital to release one every six months and the fastest I could do with all my touring was…

Months

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I think that open tunings are a trap really because it's really hard not to sound like an open tuning when your…

Hard

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It was almost two years after I left Capital that I put out the first one on Chrysalis and that was really…

After

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All bad jazz sounds like Woody Woodpecker.

Jazz

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Yes and for two reasons: one, I couldn't find anything to imitate at the time, and secondly because what I heard on…

Any

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Leo Kottke by topic