The music you hear on the CD may be beautiful, the clarity and precision something to admire, but nothing compares to seeing a master of his craft performing live. Leo Kottke stepped onto a stage bare except for a mike and two guitar stands and proceeded to transport us with an understated elegance of play that had the crowd enthralled. At any other concert the quiet would seem out of place but here it was the "silence of the fans" as they took in each and every note like a desert flower takes in the rain, parched and eager to blossom into applause.

Alternating between the six and twelve string guitars, and sharing little anecdotes like Garrison Keller with a guitar, he played most of the songs from his latest album "Standing In My Shoes" along with crowd favorites like "Deep River Blues" and "Pamela Brown."

Wearing a pair of well worn jeans and a simple white shirt, he showed why he is a member of the Guitar Hall of Fame, with lightning shifts of chord and style, from slide to pluck to vibrato and back again. While he also sang a number of his songs, singing is not his strength so he makes no attempt to overdo, but rather understates it. He uses his voice to accompany the guitar rather than the reverse.

I would love to recount all the stories he told between songs, using the opportunity to sprinkle his droll wit like a little extra spice on an already tasty dish, each one giving the following tune a little more meaning or feeling for the audience. The story of Seka Tavcar, the Ljubljana lithographer, whose father had been imprisoned (without her knowing) "Across The Street" from where she grew up was especially touching. Her father was able to watch from a small window in his cell the balcony where she and her sister played over 26 years before he was released to die at home. Yet Leo lightened the moment by comparing Seka's practice of destroying the block which produced each lithograph she made after just one use to blowing up the house each time after you had dinner. Yet, for me, the song carried more meaning even though it may have been the simplest and shortest tune that Leo played the whole evening.

Leo also played the song he had written for friends getting married called "Ring," and one of his fans' perennial favorites "Louise." He played a Christmas song that will appear on the Windham Hill Christmas album, one of the two things he says label execs always ask for. The other trying to push him into getting a "chick-singer."

Leo needs no accompaniment, no trappings. Just his guitar and the magical talent he uses to work upon it. The crowd took his music, and him, to heart for one of the most enjoyable concert experiences I've ever had.

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