Acoustic guitar titan Leo Kottke to hold court at Orlando’s Steinmetz Hall this week

A disciple of godly American Primitive guitarist John Fahey, a young Leo Kottke released his album of instrumental pieces 6- and 12-String Guitar in 1969, which became an unlikely hit and made Kottke a star. (Sales of the album also kept Fahey’s label Takoma in the black for years, likely to Fahey’s faint annoyance.)

The student maybe surpassed the master, with Kottke going on to craft 40 solo and ensemble albums over the years that have expanded kaleidoscopically on his deft and joyous merger of jazz, folk and roots sounds picked intricately on acoustic guitars.

Guitar Player mag, which loves a good shred, offered the corollary that Jimi is to the electric as Kottke is to the acoustic — and we see no lie there. The 76-year-old axeman is still alive and kicking, fingers still nimble and in rude creative form — so Steinmetz will soon ring with his cascades of notes and chords. (Might just be glorious.)

The similarly — but differently! — adventurous Julian Lage opens.

7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, Steinmetz Hall, $35- $65.

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This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2024.