Scores of guitarists and tens of thousands of fans remember “The Armadillo Album” as their first exposure to solo steel-string guitar fingerpicking and the modern concept of the guitarist / composer. Leo Kottke’s close-miked, crisp, aggressive, and inventive steady-bass fingerpicking on this 1969 LP for John Fahey’s Takoma Records redefined the market for this genre, which had been invented and nurtured by Fahey and Robbie Basho in the early and middle 1960s. 6- and 12-String Guitar remains one of the top five sellers in the history of solo steel-string guitar recordings.