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Topic: Some Leo Kottke on Weissenborn |
Ben Sims
From:
New Mexico
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 11:00 am |
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I wanted to share a Leo Kottke song I've been working on, "A Sailor's Grave on the Prairie." I think this is one of the few songs of his that could be played hawaiian style (certainly by me!) It's the first thing I've recorded with my new David Dart guitar. Here it is:
A Sailor's Grave on the Prairie
Ben[This message was edited by Ben Sims on 21 March 2006 at 11:36 AM.] |
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Steinar Gregertsen
From:
Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.
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Ben Sims
From:
New Mexico
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 11:08 am
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Steinar,
I was still fiddling with the URL. Try it now. Let me know if it's still screwed up.
Thanks,
Ben |
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Steinar Gregertsen
From:
Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.
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Ben Sims
From:
New Mexico
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 11:15 am
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I hope this is now fixed!
Ben |
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Steinar Gregertsen
From:
Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.
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Steinar Gregertsen
From:
Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.
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Matt Lange
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 12:37 pm
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I am a HUGE Kottke fan. I write and play fingerstyle guitar, and Kottke is easily my biggest influence. I've putzed around with playing some Kottke on steel, "Cripple Creek" and a few other tunes, and i came to the conclusion that they're better on a normal 6 string. I've played "salors grave" bottleneck style, but for some reason it never occured to me to try in on my steel. It sounds fantastic! I love the idea of combining fingertyle and lap steel technique (like Kelly Joe Phelps), and this is a great example. Good work.
P.S. I'm not familiar with "David Dart" guitars. Is he a Weissenborn maker?
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my music: www.myspace.com/mattlangemusic [This message was edited by Matt Lange on 21 March 2006 at 12:39 PM.] |
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Bill Blacklock
From:
Powell River, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 12:56 pm
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| Hey Ben, sounds great, real nice playing. Is the "Dart" miked. |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 1:33 pm
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| Very, very nice! Thanks for sharing it with us. |
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Jon Zimmerman
From:
California, USA
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 1:45 pm
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Your sound is very similar to Leo's, Ben. My hands-down fave of his is 'Tilt Billings and the Student Prince' a sad story of a unique guitar that's crushed when a drunk sits down on it. Also like 'Pamela Brown'- a Tom T Hall chestnut.  |
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Stephan Miller
From:
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 2:00 pm
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| Hey Ben, that's a nice blast from the past: one of my favorite Kottke tunes! (And "Pamela Brown" is another.) Strong playing on a great-sounding instrument. --Steve [This message was edited by Stephan Miller on 21 March 2006 at 02:05 PM.] |
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Travis Bernhardt
From:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 5:00 pm
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The Train and the Gate also works really well, and Snorkel, the first track off One Guitar, No Vocals works better than you'd think considering it's not a slide tune. Vaseline Machine Gun is fairly simple one, too, if you don't mind fudging the intro a little (well, you might not have to fudge the intro, but I do).
If you're not too fussy about hitting every note exactly the same as the record then a lot of his songs are playable surprisingly easily on steel. Ring I've tried and it works okay. Sonora's Death Row would probably work, but I haven't tried it. You might be able to fake In Christ There is No East or West--haven't tried it, but the slow intro should be playable, as I recall (been a while since I've listened to it). Pamela Brown might be worth a shot, too, although that might not count because it's not really a solo piece (although it could easily stand as one).
Oh yeah, and Some Birds from his big medley is playable.
Oh, and nice playing!
-Travis |
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Ben Sims
From:
New Mexico
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 8:02 pm
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Thanks for the encouraging words.
Most of you probably know more about Leo Kottke than I do. I'm just discovering his music - I was 2 when "6 and 12 String Guitar" came out, so it's really a blast from the past for me. Thanks for the song suggestions.
David Dart has been making a variety of stringed instruments for quite a while, I think. He seems to have done some work for Ben Harper. His Hawaiian guitars fall somewhere in between Weissenborn and Knutsen in design. The guitar he made for me is all mahogany, which he suggested for a less delicate tone than Koa, more suitable for blues and fingerpicking, which is what I wanted. He is an excellent guy to work with. He has a couple of Hawaiian guitars in stock right now, too - see his website:
http://www.luthier.com
I recorded the song using a regular studio condenser microphone made by Behringer.
Ben
[This message was edited by Ben Sims on 21 March 2006 at 08:08 PM.] |
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Bobbe Seymour
From:
Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 8:44 pm
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Kottke is a heavy influence in my thumb style playing that I do on steel, but I'm sure this is obvious, Ben, nice.
Bobbe |
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Herman Visser
From:
Rohnert Park, California, USA
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Posted 21 Mar 2006 9:27 pm
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| Thanks Ben.. for the post. Been a Loe Kottke Fan for years. That is another nice piece by him . Thanks |
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Darryl Hattenhauer
From:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2006 10:12 pm
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Ben,
I sure wish I could play like that. But the closest I got was dating a girl named Pamela Brown.
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"Drinking up the future, and living down the past"--unknown singer in Phoenix |
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