Aside from the magnitude of the talent present, my favorite part is watching a young pup Leo grinning like a kid in a candy store the whole time. Moments like these are life long memories and treasures for certain!
Three of the finest guitar pickers ever to grace this planet. Individually, they are astounding in their musical virtuosity. Together and just havin' fun like this, with no expectations on anyone's part, they were otherworldly. Thank you, gentlemen, for all of the joy you have given us.
Chet almost never improvised like this live. We all know he had the ability, but his live and recorded solos were all very well-rehearsed, and polished. This is one of the few recordings of him really going out on a limb with a true bluegrass solo - and he drove it home.
Daniel Schorr Fahey started it by saying Chet was basically a machine with no feeling and overdubbed all the hard stuff he did. Now Chet would overdub a solo over a rhythm part he did but that was it. He dissed Chet in guitar player magazine. Chet responded by telling Fahey that yeah he had overdubbed a few things but what he did could be done with a lot of practice. Basically telling Fahey, you know nothing.
Leo and Doc had performed this song together before. I doubt Chet had ever heard it. But he listened to them a bit, then he went to town! Great performance!
He's only 74 i sure hope he as a long bright future. Only one left of that great triad. Thanks to whoever caught this pearl. It definitely brightens my day.
Time stood still for this. Stand on your head. Unbelievable coincidental arrival of three of the best guitarists of all time. We only have one left among us. God bless them all for what they have given us!
This is almost mind blowing it's so good! Two finger pickers and a flat picker. This is what happens when there is no audience around and just a three guys with guitars start to jam. All of a sudden, magic happens.
this is possibly the best youtube video I have ever seen. These guys are beyond compare. The smile on Kottke's face is priceless. I've never seen Chet play this fast.
If I walked in and saw these 3 with their guitars out, you couldn't have pried me out of there with a stick of dynamite, I'da been sittin' right there watching and listening until they shut off the lights and locked the doors..... there's no words for the greatness, individually, or combined, that could do this justice....
You wouldn't have seen much as I would be sitting in front of you, even if it meant sitting in Kottke's lap!!! :) Wonder if they were doing a concert together or just ran into each other due to some cosmic event.
When I was in 9th grade (1958 or so) our family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. My dad was very musical, so my brother and I were immediately pointed to Mr. Yaden who taught orchestra/band etc in the schools. He handed me a baritone horn and that, or alto horn were my faves! But I was encouraged to keep up with my violin/viola as well. My brother took clarinet from Mr. Y. Mom and Dad played bridge with Leo's parents. Up on the risers and playing some old dented silver-colored baritone horn, Leo on some kind of horn (baritone? alto?) sat next to me (I think we were reading off the same music stand). I believe our parents were in the same community bridge group. Those were magic times until we moved to Cincinnati in about 1960/1. Years later, we heard Leo's name - sort of whispered in reverence - and we all said "there can't be two Leo Kottke's in this world!" Maybe 20 or 30 years later, we heard that Leo was playing at the Varsity in Atlanta, so Dan and I got tickets and lodging for the night. When we were checking in at the hotel, there was Leo at the desk: his luggage was lost! We all mingled around and came up with a solution: Dan lent Leo his sports coat for the evening. So all went well and had a great time at the concert. Luckily, the jacket was an OK fit and he returned it to our hotel manager when we all get back after the event. Funny old memories....
The incredible thing though is that whoever these people are, they just walk off after about a minute (or less). My God - had they NO idea who and what they were apparently the only human beings on Earth at that time to get to hear and see? Holy cow. I would pay with some body part to have been able to be there for this!
***** Are you kidding, I'd'a knawed a foot off to get to see this, and took the ticket gladly not to miss a second of it. How often do you get to meet the Father, Son, and the holy Ghost tearing up git-boxes? I won't get to see something like this until I pass through the pearly gates myself. This is damn special, thanks for sharing it.
I don't know if it's still this way, but I an remember being in Nashville at a guitar repair shop - think it was the Pick-n-Parlor, some of the best pickers would come in for their guitars and soon there would be two , three, four just playing not for the money or show, but for the love and fun of it. If I was a religious man I'd have bowed my head and said, Thank you Jesus."
thestoryplease Just like John Sebastian's telling of the story behind writing "Nashville Cats." "And any one that unpacks a guitar can play twice as better than I will."
Chet Atkins built his career on the Travis Style, but here demonstrates he was no slouch as a jazz player either. Incredible, historical piece of video. Kottke stayed in his lane and deferred to the greats. Classy guy.
If this doesn't put a smile on your face, then nothing can. It's amazing how even though the guitars are in perfect harmony, you can easily hear the difference in the very distinct styles of Doc and Chet. Even to this day, i'm blown away by how effortless and precise Chet Atkins is with his playing.
Just ... damn ... the smile on Leo's face never stops ... that is some fine picking there ... three distinct styles ... all mesh together ... the power of music ... and damn fine musicians ...
Kottke tells a funny story about this meeting. Doc asked him where he learned it, and Kottke explained that he learned it from John Fahey, but Fahey claimed it was a Sam McGee tune. Chet replied that he knew Sam McGee, and Sam never played anything like it. So now Kottke introduces it as "my own original number".
@joshalanfriedman8986 THANK YOU SO MUCH Josh Alan for the year and location. I was so curious about the year! Doc looks young. Of course as does Leo and Chet.
Leo and Doc had played this together on The Prairie Home Companion. I doubt Chet ever heard the song before, but look at him listen for a bit - then just go to town on his solo!
That there's a lot of guitar chops in one room - young Leo Kottke looks like a kid in a candy store, and why wouldn't he? Freakin' Doc Watson and Chet Atkins!
I first heard John Fahey play this in 1971. Bizarrely, I just learned that Fahey wrote this piece in 1964. Fahey's version, of course, is slower, dark and brooding. I'm much more in tune with this cheerful, moderately up tempo version, lit by Kotke's perpetual good humor. I really love the way Kotke the puppy integrates with two of the biggest old dogs in the biz, and it looks to me as if all three of them had a wonderful time. I sure did!
Didn't tear up, but couldn't help from grinning uncontrollably. Going to get that DVD too, thanks for the tip. I have loved Doc forever without a pause, since I met and heard him play in North Carolina in 1966. Later found and idolized Leo, but he dropped out of my consciousness for some reason, after I morphed out of Hippie culture. Thought Chet was too 'easy listening' for me, but now, of course, I see my error. Grateful for the gift of seeing this 'chance' jam session, thank you, whoever
Very very proud that my Dad and Mom were good friends of Doc and Rosalee, and Willard Docs cousin, and with Gaither Carlton too, I grew up in Nashville after my English father settled there, having gone to the states to pursue his music interests in the early 60s, I have a slide somewhere of Dad firing a long gun that the Watsons had him shoot up on top of one of the hills in Deep Gap N.C. and we have pictures of me being held and passed around as a baby, Leo has always been a fave and I have long admired Chets ability if not his Nashville 'Sound', it was lovely to find this, with two of my very favourite musicians on it...
Talking about who's the world's greatest guitar player is like trying to decide how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But surely, here are three of them.Thanks for all the grins, Doc. The music in heaven just got better.
your statement indicates you know little about ' guitar playing ' .. Leo Kottke is, at best, a one-trick pony. His playing is ' incredible ' only in that it is endlessly repetitive and redundant. He is incapable of playing off true musicians. He has rote memorized material and it solely defines him.
I ran Sound for Leo Kottke at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride in 1998. His guitar prowess is amazing, but the most memorable part of the Show was his banter in between the Music. He is an Incredibly entertaining Humorous Story Teller. I found myself thinking, "Ok, I have this on record at home, I can hear it there, Talk some more!". If you've never seen his whole show, look one up. You will be glad you did.
These three legendary guitarists sound so amazing together ! I am looking forward to seeing Leo Kottke's performance in Nashville, Indiana on April 29, 2022 !
That's a key to music. You play for the tune, not yourself. Of course you might want to show off a lick or two if you do it in the right spot in order to get others to show you their licks.
smokin! I only saw doc perform live once, at the Winfield (ks.) bluegrass festival in the late '60's he was in fine fettle, and blew away the youngsters who thought they were gonna outpick the "old guy" they learned that NOBODY could outpick Arthel watson!
I saw Doc at Stanford (CA) some time in the mid-70s. He was the second bill on a show with Gordon LIghtfoot as the headliner. Doc and Merle just tore it up! Doc had the crowd in the palm of his hand, particularly with his down home humor between numbers. And then Lightfoot comes out, and he was like a jukebox: play song, applause, go into next song. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Not a single line of patter between songs to keep the audience entertained as Doc had so brilliantly done only an hour earlier. Pretty soon, the crowd was booing, yelling "say something!!!!" Yes, Whoever dreamed up that tour clearly had the billing upside down! The world is a poorer place without Doc.
I still have "Doc and Merle, Live and Pickin'" on the shelf. Probably the greatest live capture of Doc and Merle before Merle passed away. Now that Doc has gone to heaven, they are together again playing the greatest bluegrass songs ever written. Doc truly was a "Tennessee Stud", even though he was from South Carolina. God bless Doc and Merle Watson. We will forever miss you guys.
My Dad worshiped the ground that Chet walked on. My greatest regret is that I never got the opportunity to introduce him to Doc Watson. Doc could do it all, flat pick, thumbpicking, and fingerstyle. Leo was the novice at the feet of Gods
I saw Leo live about an hour ago and he said that this came together because an airline wanted him to be the “coverboy” for the airline. He went and they told him to bring his favorite guitar , he said “they didn’t know they had broken my favorite guitar on my way here”. Once he got there he found out there were two other “chumps”, on arrival he found out it was Chet and Doc 😂, figured some may find that interesting.
Saw Leo in the seventies at the Milo Bail student center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I didn't know who he was. He had a chair and a guitar and room full of hypnotized guitar lovers. He didn't look like he shaved yet. Been a Leo Kottke fan ever since.
I don't know how Nashville works today, but back in the day, you could go almost any place connected to music, like a record store or guitar repair, and find guitar pickers playing like this just to enjoy playing together.
Well, they might have been or not. But what I was getting at, was really good pickers just playing together, not for money, but for the enjoyment of it.
This "moves me" I had the honor of working on the last 3 old steamers, employed by the B&O in Newark Oh, as a machinist turning siderod bushings and a couple tires. Yep those big drive wheels have "tires" and they get "flats" from sliding during hard stops. Im a STEAM kinda guy and I long for the sound of a whistle off in the distance in the middle of the night. And there's nothin like the sound and style of Doc Watson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fred, I haven't heard many steam whistles around here, but any whistle and horn far away in the night sets my heart to contentment..and if the wind's just right, carrying the sound of the rails clacking, well..so much the better..
now fred, you know mamma don't like no hot guitar round here. she don't like them damn trains a whistlin neither. tween me and you theres a whole lotta stuff. she aint try'n ta hear..TCHOOOOOOOOO CHTCHTCHTCH TCHOOOOOOOO.
virtuoso music and musicianship very often bring me to tears. I teared up about 3/4 through this. My God - I would just love to be able to play half that good!
Watching this after noticing Leo will be performing in Minneapolis, I really like his style, especially when he incorporates slide. I still have his 1972 album "Greenhouse"
Shredders got absolutely nothing on this. Doc and Chet dropping jaws. Kottke does almost his whole solo in first position, and it’s f%$#king incredible. Chef's kiss.
Well played, of course. I’ve watched this several times before and this time I finally noticed how well it was filmed: the setting, lighting and the great shots of your fingering of the banjo…
vasilynarvodnik Not only that, while sitting back he figured out the song and picking pattern while having never heard it before. Then he leaned forward and got right into it. Atkins is a legend, and for good reason.
Leo can hardly contain himself, watching Chet doing a bit of fancy picking at about 2 1/2 minutes. Wish I'd been a fly on the wall during THAT little session....thanks for uploading this treasure.
Awesome and Chet one of my all time favorites along with Les Paul... Railroading... Well, Rode that high iron for 42 years running those trains for the "Big UP"! Loved railroading!...
It is so sad ..all the Doc watson talant..Chet Atkins..and so many others gone to their reward...We will miss them as our insprations,and just plain enjoying pleasure to hear them play.
E , A & B7...couldn't be simpler ! Anyone can do but won't get the feel. These masters make it magic ! The best evidence that the left hand make the notes but the right hand makes the MUSIC.
