![]() “Happiness is just a bunch of fizz, but joy contains a lot of sorrow,” he says. While Gordon quickly honed in on the darker sounds he heard in the music they were both bringing to the table, Kottke believes that those melancholy tones have actually been a key part of their joint venture from the start. They hit a speedbump at one point when, as Kottke recalls, “the system wasn’t working-it was hollering up,” but they continued to dabble together. The guitarist says that he and Gordon started fooling around in the bassist’s now-defunct home studio a few years ago. This time, I was kind of the ‘no-guy,’ though Mike gives a good ‘no’ as well.” If Mike weren’t the other half of this, then none of it would get done, except maybe the very first record because we were both curious. We didn’t set any dates or anything it was much more scattered than that, and it always has been. “This time around, Mike had more of a focus toward something he wanted, and I was happy to be there. “Inevitably, you’re going to wind up playing together,” he says, in his deep, NPR-like cadence, making sure to note that this early afternoon interview was the first talking he’d done all day. And he sees the low-key nature of Noon’s genesis as simply an outgrowth of their friendship. Though he has a knack for longwinded, humorous stories-much like Gordon-he’s also a straight shooter. ![]() A student of John Fahey’s fingerpicking approach, he’s forged a singular career over the past five-and-a-half decades through his often instrumental fusion of blues, jazz and folk music, as well as his flair for syncopation. The 75-year-old, Oklahoma-bred Kottke-who is riding out the global pandemic at home in Minneapolis-has long been revered for his acoustic-guitar skills, helping inspire the recent American primitive revival. On the other hand, we started getting into this sound of just the two of us and getting much more dialed in and thoughtful about how that’s handled.” It’s helpful because we’re both liberal with our stretching and pushing and pulling of time and rhythm it’s good to anchor that with a drummer, some of the time. “So these ideas were brewing for about 10 years, between 20, and the idea to work with a drummer ebbed and flowed. “I remember thinking, ‘That could be a new kind of thing for us to go really crazy with,’ something that’s both intricate and also kind of dark sounding,” Gordon says, calling from his home in Vermont, on a beautiful fall day just before he’s scheduled to participate in a bass webinar for the Berklee College of Music. Then, a few years later, Gordon attended a Kottke performance and was so struck with the song “Ants” that he recorded it on his phone. While on the road supporting Sixty Six Steps-driving from gig to gig in a car, as is Kottke’s preferred method of transportation-the guitarist played Gordon a few songs that the bassist remembers thinking were a bit more subdued and melancholy than their previous albums. A welcome mix of Kottke originals, Gordon staples and covers, including another take on “Eight Miles High,” Noon’s roots actually date back to the pair’s last tour together a decade-and-ahalf ago. The 11-track set not only marks their long-awaited return to the studio, but also Kottke’s first album since their previous collaboration, 2005’s Sixty Six Steps. The duo-with an assist from Fishman on a few songs-released Noon, their third full-length album and first in 15 years, in late August on Megaplum/ATO. Of course, Gordon and Kottke eventually did connect and, for going on 20 years, they have been at the heart of one of the most beloved side-projects in the Phish orbit. After that show-especially after hearing Leo speak between songs-I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe there’s another person on earth that’s got the same sense of humor as Mike.’” It would be so good, it’d be illegal.’ I had the same thought about Mike and Leo. “I remember reading in Miles Davis’ autobiography that he had had an appointment to meet with Jimi Hendrix that never happened and I thought, ‘If they ever met, then that might be the end of the world. “I came away from that concert saying to myself, ‘Man, Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke should never meet-if they ever met, that might be the end of the world,’” Fishman says between cackles a few decades later, checking in from his home in Maine, months into the novel coronavirus pandemic. The drummer-who had recently co-founded Phish with Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Jeff Holdsworth-had been listening to the lauded acoustic guitarist’s music since high school and was particularly mesmerized by his reading of The Byrds’ classic “Eight Miles High.” But the nascent Phish member still left that seminal performance with an unexpected realization. Sometime in the 1980s, Jon Fishman saw Leo Kottke perform for the first time at the tiny Burlington, Vt., club Hunt’s.
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