VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mercury Studios will release on July 7 a special three-CD boxed set of Hot Tuna, in-concert from the ‘90s. Complete with full acoustic band—no drums—at The Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California two nights in a row, and at Stove’s in Yokohama, Japan. Originally released by Relix in the ‘90s, then reissued/remastered with bonus tracks by Eagle Records in 2004, the box will house for the first time all three shows in one sterling package complete with poster.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist/author Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady have been performing as Hot Tuna since 1969 when they were both in San Francisco’s pre-eminent rock ’n’ roll band, Jefferson Airplane. When the Airplane morphed into Jeffferson Starship, the pair went on as a duo and as a collective with a rotating cast to concentrate on their blues, folk, country, early pop, and jams to make Hot Tuna an early forerunner of Americana.
Loved by millions for decades ever since, these shows contain the best of what they’ve been known for: hot rockin’ blues, bluegrass, folk, and country. (In the ‘90s, they were even doing Jefferson Airplane covers, plus covers of Elvis, Dylan, Bill Monroe ,and Johnny Cash!) Special guests include Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and folksinger Happy Traum. Of special note is an exceedingly rare version of Jefferson Airplane’s 1966 “Embryonic Journey” performed acoustically with no drums.
Jorma has been for years now the foremost exponent of the Southeast Piedmont Blues Guitar fingerpicking style that legends like Blind Blake, the Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Brownie McGhee, and Blind Willie McTell brought to prominence. His 2018 Been So Long autobiography explains his transition from Acid Rocker to Folk Blues Hero. He now is, in fact, that which he first started out emulating: the real deal…a bluesman of the finest order. And no one adds to his oeuvre like Jack Casady. Be prepared to be blown away.
