#Eight miles high leo kottke trial#
It was a process of trial and error, in which I would work on one note at a time.
I started out being in isolation, playing by myself. What makes Mike a person you want to keep teaming up with?
You don’t collaborate with a lot of other musicians these days. What does ice cream mean to you? What do you enjoy about ice cream? Did you plan to eat some ice cream today? Now, take “ice cream” and replace it with “music” and the answers to those questions are the same. It's just something that grows and takes root. Now and then something comes up, we fuss around and sometimes it gains momentum. It's never been my favorite thing to do, but recordings do happen. Also, I didn’t want to see another studio for a long time. It’s a friendship and we happened to play. What made you want to rekindle your recording activities with Mike Gordon after so long? Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke recording Noon, 2020 | Photo: Jared Slomoff Whatever this is that I do never changes. But as far as people needing music any more or less, I don’t believe so. That's why I don't do benefits any longer, because I feel like I'm being rude. So for me, it's just an essential element of life. Music is beyond human and that's why I think it does us so much good. Society doesn't have anything to do with music. It’s really good to hear that communication is happening.ĭo you believe music has more value to society in this extraordinary period we’re living in? The agents, venue owners and promoters are all still talking to one another and planning for the future. Nobody knows when it’s going to happen, but concerts will come back. Or I pick up the guitar or I write words. The people I know who've gotten sick from COVID-19 have recovered, so I am a lot more fortunate than many people.Īll I need is an empty room and I can get along pretty well. Without it, other things happen, so it's really nice. It opens up a lot of room for the guitar that was crowded out by travel and by playing live all the time, because the playing naturally keeps you in a certain frame-the performance frame. It's given me a chance to be in one place longer than two months, which is the longest I've been in one place in 52 years. Kottke also contemplates how the guitar saved his life and its ceaseless capacity for propelling him forward. Kottke explores the making of Noon, how he’s able to maintain incredibly high performance standards at age 75, and several rarely-discussed recordings and projects during this conversation. The duo also revisit one of Kottke’s signature tunes, The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” In addition, the album offers up a playful reimagining of Prince’s “Alphabet Street.” Another highlight is Gordon’s eclectic, occasionally discordant, “I Am Random” which speaks to both musicians’ quirky societal observations. The Noon version finds Gordon sympathetically aligning his bass playing with Kottke’s kinetic rhythms to impressive effect. The album includes the recorded debut of “Ants,” one of Kottke’s most creative, expansive and road-tested instrumentals. Noon also features guest performers, such as Phish drummer Jon Fishman, cellist Zoë Keating, and pedal street guitarist Brett Lanier.
It was put together in multiple ways, including face-to-face studio work, file swapping, sheet music exchanges, and in one case, Gordon shipping a boombox pre-loaded with recordings for Kottke to review in a novel attempt to combat inertia. The process was more extended than usual, stretching out over several years and into the COVID-19 pandemic. Noon builds on the collaborative framework they established on 2002’s Clone and 2005's Sixty Six Steps. They recently collaborated on Noon, their third release and Kottke’s first album in 15 years. But singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Gordon, best known as a founding member of Phish, has served as a catalyst for Kottke to record and release new work. His enthusiam for studio work has waned in the last two decades, choosing instead to focus on live performances. Kottke was once a prolific recording artist that sometimes released two albums a year during the ‘60s and ‘70s. When Kottke plays live, he transports audiences far beyond day-to-day concerns and into deeply personal narratives that alternate between the profound and hilarious. The renowned, influential acoustic guitarist possesses a boundless muse that resonates across 55 years of virtuoso recordings and performances, as well as during his witty, idiosyncratic stage banter. Storytelling runs deep through Leo Kottke’s veins.
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