“He said, ‘I finally got around to listening to it. “I think, ‘Okay, well, he didn’t really like the tape,’” says Gordon. Gordon handed Kottke the package at one of his shows at Vermont’s Higher Ground. And the stories that he tells between songs are more than half of what you pay for, because someone always gets killed or maimed or embarrassed.” “It would sound like classical one moment, then jazzy, then folky and then bluegrass-y,” Gordon says of Kottke’s style. At the time, Gordon was listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, but he was looking to expand his tastes, after meeting bandmate Trey Anastasio. Gordon saw Kottke for the first time playing at a club in Burlington, Vermont, in the early 1980s. “He’ll travel the country listening to the Lone Ranger series from the 1950s in its entirety in the car.” “He’s like this iconic American treasure living in his own bubble,” says Mike Gordon of Phish. Kottke has been selling out theaters across the country, playing his wild, highly technical blend of bluegrass, folk, and jazz and classical music since releasing his 1969 album 6- and 12-String Guitar. “The crews are real happy to see me, because they don’t have to do a goddamn thing.” “The promoters know that I have no logistics, no rider, no tour manager, and they get me in and out and be done with it,” says the guitarist, 74. He deals with venue staff directly, settling up on his own. Instead of using a tour bus, the guitarist drives himself, piling his guitars into the back of a rental car. For the last several decades, Leo Kottke has perfected the way he likes to tour.
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