By the end of his last tour with Leo Kottke, in 2005, Mike Gordon was playing an acoustic bass guitar with no amp, relying on the bounce-back off Kottke’s guitar to properly hear himself. That’s a far cry from his 6,000-watt, multi-cabinet setup with Phish, but the tradeoff has been worth it, as his pairing with the master fingerpicker guitarist has given Gordon enough insight about his bass playing, composing, and producing to fill an arena. The union began at the dawn of the new millennium, when Gordon — a longtime fan of Kottke’s — sent him a recording he’d made of his bass added to “The Driving of the Year Nail” [from Kottke’s 1971 Rhino release 6- and 12-String Guitar]. Kottke liked it, and the two got together in Trey Anastasio’s barn. For Gordon, playing with Kottke was similar to the challenge Lee Sklar faced when he began working with James Taylor, in that both guitarists had the bass notes covered within their fingerpicking styles. Explains Gordon, “I