Make Them Glad to See You Coming: Danny Kortchmar on a Session Guitarist Career (Episode 55)

Reliability beats virtuosity.

There are few others who get it done like Kootch. Danny Kortchmar is known for his work with James Taylor, David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash, Neil Young and Carly Simon, and his songs have been recorded by Jackson Browne and Don Henley. In Episode 55 of The Career Musician, Nomad talks with one of his heroes about a career that runs from the 1960s to fronting The Immediate Family alongside fellow legends Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel.

Nomad didn't want a list of credits. Anybody can look those up. He wanted to know how a session guitarist career actually lasts 50 plus years. Kootch gave him straight East Coast answers.

No plan B

By 12 or 13, Kootch was totally immersed in the guitar. He never thought about whether he could make a living at it. That was what he was going to do, one way or the other. After high school he had a short job in the mailroom of an advertising company. Three months was enough to know he was never going to make it in the corporate world.

So he started a band, the King Bees, around 19, playing rock and soul all over New York. One steady gig at a big discotheque paid about $150 a week each. He felt like he was rolling in dough. It didn't last. That is the first thing you learn: it is a roller coaster.

His advice on the ups and downs applies to all of life. People are born, people die, you get a gig, you lose a gig. You have to adapt, improvise, and find a way through it. He never had a plan B, and in 50 plus years, he says, it is not all going to be great. There have been ups and downs, and plenty of incredible things too.

Make them glad to see you coming

Ask Kootch for advice for young players and he gets right to it. Get along with the people you are with. Choose parts that help the singer, the drummer and the other musicians.

"You gotta learn how to play a song... and they have to be glad to see you coming."

Danny Kortchmar, 16:11

Nobody wants the guy who shows up and blasts away too loud for 20 minutes. Learn how to make the drummer happy. Be prepared. Even if you're jamming with kids in your neighborhood, listen to what they are doing and find a way to fit in. Everything you play is not a solo. Reliability beats virtuosity, and Kootch has the career to prove it.

He is not impressed by the guitar tricks on YouTube either. No matter how good you think you are, somebody is better. Great, to him, is a bunch of people getting together and playing music.

Projects over punch-ins

Kootch was never the guy who took every 10 to 1 session that came along just to fill his book. He respects those players, but he wanted to be part of projects, the way his heroes at Stax and Motown were. And honestly, he says, most session work is pretty boring.

He learned how to play on records by playing on Carole King's demos. She didn't tell him what to do, because she liked the way he played, but she guided him in subtle ways. He learned from Peter Asher and Lou Adler too. Nomad compared it to going to music college in real life. You learn this stuff by doing it.

His famous solo on Carole King's "It's Too Late" happened that way: cutting live on the floor, somebody says take a solo, and he played to the mood of the song. He is glad he didn't know how big it would be. And for years afterward, he would hear it in every pharmacy and supermarket.

Relationships are like making a movie

How do you keep a network going for decades? Kootch says the people you play with become your pals. It is like a film crew: everybody gets close, then the movie ends and they go their separate ways. That doesn't mean they stop loving each other. You go where the next gig is.

He has stayed close with everyone he came up with. No hard feelings, no attitude. They spent too much time together for that. That is Low maintenance / no drama over 50 years.

Those relationships also got him credit. Producers like Peter Asher put the players' names on the records. The Wrecking Crew before them never really got that recognition. Once the names were on the records, producers knew who to call.

Perfect is not the point

Kootch remembers when the band got in a room together and played, and records were made that way. Now a lot of records are cut piecemeal, one part at a time on a computer, with a long list of producers and writers.

"Perfect is not the essence of great music and never has been."

Danny Kortchmar, 23:24

Perfect, to him, is when it gets you. Everything else is up for grabs. That is the sound of The Immediate Family. They have played together for so long they have a telepathy going, and he introduces them as a cover band that plays all original material: songs he wrote for and with Don Henley and Jackson Browne, and songs James Taylor recorded, all played their own way.

Your style is what you can't do

Kootch taught himself to sing his own material, and got serious about it after the Troubadour Reunion Tour, using a vocal warm-up app and singing along with his electric guitar at home. He quoted the novelist Philip Roth: your style is based on what you can't do. Find the keys that work, your money notes, the vowels that get you up there. Necessity is the mother of invention.

It ain't about you

On that reunion tour, near the end of the show, they would play "You've Got a Friend" and people would cry. Mothers and daughters, married couples holding hands.

"You don't ever forget that. It ain't about you."

Danny Kortchmar, 42:20

Music is for reminding people of their own humanity. It's not a competition. His last advice: you have to be all in, and if you can do anything else, do that. And learn everything you can, not just guitar, but Pro Tools, social media, every part of it. Make Music Your Business.

The takeaway

Play the song. Make the band sound good. Keep your friendships, keep your ego in check, and remember who the music is really for. That is how Kootch kept working for more than 50 years. If you want to be the player people are glad to see coming, start with the free Get the Gig guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

Watch on YouTube or find every episode on the TCM Podcast page.