Great Big Boy is an album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 guitarist Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...

, released in 1991.

History

Kottke's fifth album on the Private Music

Private Music

Private Music is a United States record company founded in 1984 by experimental musician Peter Baumann, as a home for instrumental music. Initially signing such artists as Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Patrick O'Hearn, and Baumann's former bandmates Tangerine Dream, the record label specialized in New Age...

 label, Great Big Boy is unique in the later Kottke canon in that every song includes a vocal part. The disc consists of nine Kottke originals and a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

's "I Still Miss Someone

I Still Miss Someone

"I Still Miss Someone" is the title of a song written and originally recorded by American country music singer Johnny Cash. He first recorded it in 1958 as the b-side to "Don't Take Your Guns to Town".-History:...

". Complementing the often-oblique song lyrics is a strange short story included in the liner notes.

Margo Timmins

Margo Timmins

Margo Timmins is the lead vocalist of the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies. She is the sister of Michael Timmins, the band's lead guitarist and Peter Timmins, the band's drummer...

' vocals were recorded by Peter Moore at MDI Productions, Toronto, Canada.

Though Kottke would not release another studio album until 1994, he was a frequent guest on various projects. He guested on Joshua Judges Ruth (1992) and I Love Everybody (1994) for Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...

, Troubadour (1992) by Larry Long, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...

 and Traffic From Paradise by Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...

 (both 1993) and Out of the Valley (1994) by John Gorka

John Gorka

John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...

.

Great Big Boy was re-released on CD as a "twofer" with Peculiaroso by Acadia (8182) on Oct 29, 2007.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, music critic Chip Renner wrote of the album "Kottke sings on this record to good effect."

Track listing

All songs by Leo Kottke except as noted.

1. "Running Up the Stairs" – 3:16
2. "The Other Day (near Santa Cruz)" – 2:55
3. "Great Big Boy" – 3:40
4. "Driver" – 3:34
5. "Pepe Hush" – 4:43
6. "Big Mob on the Hill" – 2:42
7. "Ice Cream" – 4:36
8. "Nothin' Works" – 2:54
9. "Summer's Growing Old" – 2:53
10. "I Still Miss Someone" (Johnny Cash
    Johnny Cash
    John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
    
     & Roy Cash, Jr.) – 3:28

Personnel

• Leo Kottke - guitar, vocals
• Margo Timmins
  Margo Timmins
  Margo Timmins is the lead vocalist of the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies. She is the sister of Michael Timmins, the band's lead guitarist and Peter Timmins, the band's drummer...
  
   - backing vocals on 5
• Lyle Lovett
  Lyle Lovett
  Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...
  
   - backing vocals on 6, 7, 8
• John Leftwich - bass 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10
• Alejandro "Alex" Acuña
  Alex Acuña
  Alejandro Neciosup Acuña aka Alex Acuña is a Peruvian drummer and percussionist, in the Afro-Cuban jazz style.Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands from the age of ten, and moved to Lima as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1967 he moved...
  
   - drums, percussion on 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
• Robert Martin - keyboards on 1, 2, 4-8, 10; bass on 2, 5, 7, background vocals on 6
• Victor Bisetti - drums & percussion on 3 & 10
• Steve Kujala - flute on 3

Production notes

• Produced by Steve Berlin
  Steve Berlin
  Steve Berlin is an American saxophonist, keyboardist and record producer, best known as a member of the rock group Los Lobos and, before that, Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, The Blasters, and The Flesh Eaters...
  
  
• Recording Engineer: Paul duGre
• Other engineers: Bob Schaper, Scott Stillman, Peter Moore
• Mastered by Doug Sax & Alan Yoshida

External links

• Leo Kottke official site
• Unofficial Leo Kottke web site (fan site)