#hot tuna

[jt1674]

[undergroundrockpress]

Hot Tuna, 1972.

[justwalkiingthedog]

Hot Tuna - Walkin' Blues - 11/20/1976 - Capitol Theatre (Official)

[balthazar-sketti]

Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady aka Hot Tuna

"Mann's Fate", 1969

[nostalgia-eh52]

Joey Covington Drummer for Jefferson Airplane & Hot Tuna 🥁

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Jorma Kaukonen - Reno Road

What began as an informal recording session in a friend’s basement has become, 60-plus years later, the long-missing frontispiece to the musical book of Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen.

Reno Road consists of 23 songs and 80 minutes of Kaukonen performing while Casady rolled tape. This occurred at Casady’s house before the pair moved west and co-founded Jefferson Airplane and its offshoot, Hot Tuna.

Rare is the early home recording that’s both fascinating for merely existing and high quality enough to stand on its own merits. Reno Road is among these gems.

Just discovered by Casady and restored, the recordings are surprisingly high-fidelity as Kaukonen flirts with the sound and style of John Fahey as much as Ian Buchanan and the Rev. Gary Davis. And the songs … these are the songs that still populate Hot Tuna setlists with such titles as “Trouble in Mind, “True Religion,” “Candy Man,” “Whinin’ Boy Blues,” “Hesitation Blues” and others.

“The seeds were planted here that have grown into the garden that has defined my life,” Kaukonen writes in the liners. “My repertoire has grown, but these songs have continued to evolve as part of my daily, ongoing collaboration with Jack.”

There’s slight degradation in “I Belong to the Band” and “That’ll Never Happen No More,” but the imperfections only confirm the specialness in this unlikely source tape. What listeners get is a pre-fame Kaukonen foreshadowing what would become his life’s work after a brief - highly successful - foray into psychedelia.

More remarkable still is that Kaukonen’s fingerpicking is readily identifiable even at this early stage, despite the youthful voice sounding like another person entirely.

Grade card: Jorma Kaukonen - Reno Road - A

3/12/25

[rastronomicals]

5:48 AM EST February 5, 2025:

Hot Tuna - "Death Don't Have No Mercy" From the album Hot Tuna (May 1970)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[swallow-wind]

Happy 84th birthday to Jorma Kaukonen!

[julio-viernes]

Una delicatessen instrumental para un frío día de domingo, a ver si entramos en calor. Hot Tuna empezaron siendo un grupo acústico, folk, blues y "roots" antes de volver a la electricidad del Airplane. Jack Casady venía del rhythm and blues y Jorma Kaukonen del mundo del folk, como la inmensa mayoría de los músicos que dieron forma al rock ácido de la West Coast. Ambos eran músicos de mentalidad muy abierta, escuchaban de todo, clásica, jazz, blues, R+B, country, rock, folk de la más diversa procedencia, experimental y de vanguardia, y de todo sacaban algo. "Water Song" es un prodigio de compenetración entre las guitarras de Kaukonen y el bajo distorsionado de Casady. Fue una de las canciones de su tercer LP, "Burgers" (Grunt, 1972).

Aunque es un tema plácido me ha hecho pensar en la tormentosa "Red" de King Crimson. Son canciones distintas que no tienen nada que ver. O tal vez sí, el toque y sonoridad del bajo.

[upperswampmonkey]

Hot Tuna - Keep On Truckin'

[de-salva]

HOT TUNA - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning

Alb. "Hot Tuna" (1970)

Personnel:

Jorma Kaukonen – acoustic guitar, vocals Jack Casady – bass guitar

Additional personnel:

Will Scarlett – harmonica

[jt1674]

[undergroundrockpress]

A Benefit for White Panther Party Legal Defense. Guy Colwell / 1968.

[affiches-concerts]

Hot Tuna (Kaukonen-Casady), 1971.

[spilladabalia]

Hot Tuna - Water Song - 3/22/1973 - 46th Street Rock Palace - Brooklyn, NYC -

[krispyweiss]

Hot Tuna Acoustic at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio, July 11, 2024

Just how long have Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady been playing together?

So long that the old friends took a moment toward the end of their sold-out, Columbus, Ohio, show to reminisce about their first band, Jefferson Airplane, opening for Dizzy Gillespie on New Year’s Eve 1965.

So while it might be reasonable to assume the men - known together as Hot Tuna - see their work as a grind, the opposite is true. The July 11 performance inside Natalie’s Grandview marked their first gig in five months, a big gap they were happy to bridge, according to their between-song chatter and the undefinable extra spark that permeated the music and belied the octogenarian reality of the band.

At 83, Kaukonen remains a nimble finger-picking acoustic guitarist capable of subtle, quiet playing and aggressive, loud blues. Electric bassist Casady, 80, meanwhile, is a lead player on a rhythm instrument who consistently finds the sweet spot between support and showcase. Together, they’re as close to one musician as two musicians can be even as they’re walking down the same musical paths with very different gaits.

Opening with “Ain’t in No Hurry” and choosing 18 songs on the fly from a master list, Kaukonen and Casady played familiar chestnuts from their repertoire including “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” and “Hesitation Blues;” newer, lighthearted additions such as “Where Have My Good Friends Gone;” and closed after 100 minutes with “True Religion.”

The musical closeness Hot Tuna share within the music is also evident outside of it, something easy to pick up on in a venue so intimate, the face of Casady’s smart watch was visible from the audience. As the friends and colleagues continued their six-decade-plus conversation, they exchanged knowing glances, beaming smiles and inside signals known only to them but visible to all. Often lost in the music, Casady would mouth the words Kaukonen sang, move his lower body to his own low notes and throw his head back in aural ecstasy as Kaukonen riffed away in the chair beside his.

“It’s been swell, Jack,” Kaukonen said through a wide smile that showed his gold tooth sparkling in the stage lights.

And it was that. And more.

Grade card: Hot Tuna Acoustic at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio - 7/11/24 - A

7/12/24