Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon: Clone (2002) and Sixty-Six Steps (2005): less a review than an endorsement.
Recently I stumbled upon the fingerstyle guitar maestro Leo Kottke, and I soon learned that he made two albums in collaboration with Mike Gordon (bassist of Phish fame, the “cactus”) whose style I admire a lot and whose solo album The Green Sparrow (2008) has a few brilliant songs and is highly recommended.
Both albums have a fantastically playful and “breezy” vibe… it’s like lying in a hammock under a coconut tree (see Clone’s album cover). Mike’s compositions have his delightfully goofy style. Leo’s distinctive polyrhythmic fingerstyle technique fits perfectly. There’s plenty of banjo, mandolin and if you listen carefully you’ll hear lots of other peculiar percussive sounds in there besides. There are a few covers on Sixty-Six steps, including Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion and Phish’s Ya Mar. They’re not particularly interesting covers but the arrangements join the flow of the album perfectly.
I recommend both these CDs massively! Both Leo and Mike are top notch musicians, their output together basically consists of mainly upbeat, joyful and groovey largely acoustic- and instrumental-driven pieces. Many well known country/bluegrass/americana sounding chord progressions and tradition song structures serve as platforms for their own catchy and distinctive sounds.
Here are the spotify links:
Clone (2002): http://open.spotify.com/album/73sseRvQaK4KCVmNqkPyiR
Sixty-Six Steps (2005): http://open.spotify.com/album/1xvOhmnVQcbtN0oOBneBoP
