"Easter" by Leo Kottke

Friends:

I'm excited to present an old favorite this month. Leo Kottke's "Easter" is one of the very first fingerstyle solos I was introduced to by my father, and it remains as one of my favorite compositions to play and listen to.

The earliest recording of "Easter" can be heard on the 12 String Blues record, recorded live at The Scholar coffeehouse in 1969. I'd be near certain he's using his B45 for this recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIqIpaJt04
Quite a bit different from the other versions as you will hear.

The second recording was on the 1970 Circle Round the Sun record. In my mind this recording shows the rapid development of the piece and brings the style much closer to how he played it a couple years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyk8CP-iYfE

There is also a recently unearthed recording from May of 71 where he makes a brief mention of the 12 String Blues record as he introduces the piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPGQp5XC9ac

I transcribed this from the My Feet Are Smiling record. This will not come as a surprise to many of you, I feel by now I've made it clear that this is my favorite guitar record. By this time, late 1972, the piece had settled into what I think of as it's final form. Other live performances around the same era and beyond are similar, with a little further development as the late 70s approach.

Between 1972 and 1974 Kottke was frequently playing "Easter" as a medley with "Vaseline Machine Gun." I suspect he may have done this during the performance captured on My Feet Are Smiling but "Vaseline Machine Gun" was later edited out. The transition between tracks on the record makes it sound as if "Easter" flows directly into "Louise," but we know that's not possible since the two are in different tunings. I've included a recording from 12/26/1973 where he tells a little of the backstory behind "Easter" and you can hear the transition into "Vaseline Machine Gun." (I should add a warning here, he jokes that he would have liked to punch the kid he wrote "Easter" for, and his phrasing includes some colorful language, so you may wish to opt out of listening to the recording if you are sensitive to such things.)

Some of you here have probably already learned the piece from one of my old handwritten scores. If you have, there will still be some things to learn as I refined quite a few notes. Regarding the right- and left-hand editing, no video currently exists of Leo performing this in the 70s (that I'm aware of), but I suspect all the editing to be very close to what would have been done.

I'm playing this on another Božo 12 that came to me recently. The guitar was listed at something of a bargain price and after trying to convince some of my friends to buy it none did, so I decided to snag it. I was completely surprised that what showed up was pretty much a one-off long scale 12 that originally shipped out to Germany. I tell a little bit of the story in the lesson video.

Finally, the tuning. This is in open G, but it is performed at a lower pitch on the 12 string. The low D sounds as a Bb on the My Feet Are Smiling record. This means everything is tuned two full steps down from open G. I believe he also tuned down yet another half step beyond that in some concerts. The tuning you choose will be dependent on the string gauge, scale length, and setup of your instrument.

This will be one of the simpler Patreon additions, but as with everything, the beauty is in the small details. The front and back of the piece are in free time, so take the rhythms on the paper as a guide, observe the fermatas, but use your ear to determine the best phrasing.

My lesson video can be accessed here:
https://youtu.be/Sx_amkiQj9E

Thanks to everyone for helping keep this project alive. See you again next month.