16 Facts About Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke was born on September 11,1945 and is an American acoustic guitarist.

Leo Kottke is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies.

Leo Kottke 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.

Leo Kottke learned to play trombone and violin before trying the guitar and developing his own unconventional picking style.

Leo Kottke attended the University of Missouri for two semesters, where he was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Leo Kottke arrived at the Scholar Coffeehouse in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis in the autumn of 1966 and soon was a regular performer.

Leo Kottke recorded 6- and 12-String Guitar for John Fahey's Takoma Records later the same year.

Leo Kottke closed out his contract with Capitol with his seventh album, Chewing Pine, in 1975.

Leo Kottke has studied more classical and jazz-oriented compositional and playing techniques.

Leo Kottke 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 Leo Kottke often found his music categorized as such during this period.

Leo 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.

In 2004, Leo Kottke released another solo album, Try and Stop Me.

Leo 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.

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.

Leo Kottke combined previously recorded tunes into new compositions, notably the mini-suite "Bigger Situation", released on One Guitar No Vocals.