Leo Kottke

Posted Fri Sep 5, 2008 in Music

Leo Kottke is one of those rare finds of mine from many years ago. I’ve written about him before. He’s an American singer-songwriter, but his real fame is in his guitar playing. He’s an amazing player and has talent for both generating material and arranging songs.

I’m listening to Standing in My Shoes as I write. I’ve been listening to my Kottke collection all day (as I work). He was a real find.

As an aside, I see that Amazon has some of his music available for download. They use a 256Kb/s-rate MP3. I usually buy CDs, then convert to 256Kb/s-rate AAC, but much of my older collection is in 256Kb/s-rate VBR MP3 format. While it’s not archival quality, it’s certainly good enough for listening in the equipment I own. My ears aren’t good enough to tell the difference at that rate.

So, I could purchase MP3s from Amazon if I found something I like and have an alternative to the iTunes Music Store. That’s cool. I like options.

P.S. OK, now I’ve done it. While snagging an image for the essay, I stumbled on a copy of Chewing Pine that I had to order. That was my first Leo Kottke recording, purchased on vinyl, more than thirty years ago.