A Child Should Be A Fish.

[NNadir]

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[DFW]

1. Ice Water!

One of my favorite Kottke Albums.

My brother presented me with the Armadillo album in 1971 and changed my musical perspective forever. I even sought out Božo Podunavac to make me a bunch of those 12 string guitars in th hope I'd get closer to Kottke's sound, toured in Germany a few times, etc, gave up (I would NEVER be as good as he is) fantasies of doing it for the rest of my life. But he has so many memorable pieces, it's hard to pick out a favorite. Cal Hand helped on this one, too. One of the pieces that are completely timeless, will lull me back to a peaceful mood for as long as my auditory nerves are functional.

Although..........I recently ran across this on the internet and got comPLETELY freaked out. A piece I recorded 42 years ago resurfacing from the forgotten sands of time: https://www.facebook.com/okonkole/posts/425903680939016

[NNadir]

2. A Child Should Be A Fish I must admit is my favorite among all his pieces...

...because of that beautiful pause and the wonderful way the bass comes in at the restart.

I agree, Cal Hand's work here is striking. I don't remember who the bass player was. I have the CD somewhere, and still have the vinyl too, so I guess I could look it up.

I have a Guild D40-CNT 12 that I bought because Ralph Towner had one. For a while I had a passable version of Abercrombie's "Timeless" which Towner recorded several times in several different ways.

A few times in clubs, when I was younger, I used use it to a passable slide version of Kotke's "Pamela Brown," but "A Child Should Be A Fish..." well, some things are sacred and one shouldn't even try which is not to say that if I did try, I'd even get a few bars.

Your piece is quite good by the way...

Thanks.

[DFW]

3. I have done more complex 12 string pieces, but I always liked that one for some reason

I usually don't do vocals at all (the Talking TSA Blues is an exception because I didn't have to sing--it's on Youtube as a cartoon music video).

Kottke's studio band at the time, except for Cal Hand, were all named Bill: Bill Barber, Bill Berg, and the bassist, Bill Peterson.

If you can find it, on Jango, the free online radio, look for The Freedom Toast channel. TFT is a part-time project of me and some friends from Atlanta. Since I live in Europe, you can imagine we don't get together too often.

Besides the Talking TSA Blues, there is an updated version of one of the pieces (Long Lost Salamander) on the 1974 album (updated version is called Canyonlands) as well as one on a European album I recorded with some Dutch friends (the "Holland-America Line&quot called the Lazy C Ranch due to its being in C tuning and sounding almost C&W.

On "A Child Should Be A Fish" the engineer should get a few kudos, too, as his perfect miking and mixing of the plucked bass in the coda really elevates the piece into unforgettability (assuming there is such a word).