Izze and Nessa went to Newark (or Nerk as we say) for a volleyball tournament. They left around 0530. It could be worse. A male kid playing ice hockey would require lots more driving. Anyway, left home alone, I took Mav for a walk down our Hwy 61 in between storms. Rain or not, at least it’s warmer and any day now I expect to hear peepers.
Well, we sent out # 39 to our brothers and sisters in Radio Stream Dreamland last night, and here’s what we did:
Jorma Kaukonen 10, 2021
Quarantine Concert Series #39
The Fur Peace Station
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, February 27, 2021
West Coast Blues
Serpent Of Dreams
Walkin’ Blues
Full Go Round
Brother Can You Spare A Dime
Living In The Moment
Kansas City Southern with John Hurlbut
Someone’s Calling with John Hurlbut
Mann’s Fate
Letter To The North Star
Genesis
West Coast Blues was the first finger style songs I ‘got’ when I was first starting out finger picking in 1960. thanks brother Ian! I owe more to you than I was ever able to tell you, may your memory be a blessing! I rarely do it as a performance piece so it was big fun to start the set with it. I hadn’t performed Brother Can You Spare A Dime since one of the very earliest shows of the Quarantine Concert Series so it was equally great to bring that beauty to light again. Now I’m already thinking about #40. Hmmmm….
After their walks Percy relaxes in Maverick’s house and they both contemplate sharing a bone.
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
I’ve got a Sunday Zoom lesson coming up but I just wanted to get this post up and running.
When I moved to the Bay Area in Northern California in 1962 I settled in Santa Clara, where I was to go to school. San Francisco was a Mecca to me back then. The whole Beat headspace had been calling my name for years. Santa Clara was a backwater, but San Francisco was less than fifty miles away. As soon as I was able to find a like-minded spirit with a car, we saddled up and headed north up the 101.
North Beach had been calling my name for a long time. Coming back from the Philippines some months before, a stop at an English-speaking bookstore in Tokyo had outfitted me with some Henry Miller books… hard if not impossible to find in the States back then. At City Lights Bookstore there on Columbus Avenue in North Beach, all things were possible from The Rosy Crucifixion to Black Spring. That was 59 years ago, and at that callow age all things were still possible.
A couple or so years later in 1966, Jefferson Airplane would play a show at the Fillmore Auditorium. That in itself would not be that interesting. In some respects, the Airplane was almost like a band in residence. I lived up the street from the Fillmore in the Western Addition and the other band members did not live far away.
Anyway, the ‘opening’ act that night was Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the young Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky. Lawrence read, then Andrei read… then Lawrence read the English translations of the work that Andrei had just manifested. Hard to imagine an unformatted ‘rock’ show like that today. Bill Graham wasn’t into cookie cutter shows, that’s for sure!
Bill would die in 1991, Andrei in 2010 and Lawrence in 2021.
As Lawrence said, ‘The greatest poem is lyric life itself.
#38 was yet another good time for us here at the Fur Peace Ranch. Instead of waiting until our 8 o’clock start time, we started recording at four. We’ve had some nasty weather here (I know we’re not alone) and the temperature dropped to 8 degrees F last night. We just couldn’t have our people driving these country roads late at night under those conditions. Things look like they’re warming up, if a little rainy. We’ll be live and in person for #39!
While I’m making corrections, for years I’ve been crediting Snooks Eaglin with Uncle Sam (or Questionaire Blues as it is also called.) I also went back last night and checked the Folkways LP I have been referencing. The song is not there. Armed with these facts, I can’t remember where I got the song and why I blamed Snooks. Could it have been Ian Buchanan? Perhaps, but that’s not even an educated guess. I stand corrected… the true facts may be lost in antiquity.
Moving on… the set list from last night:
Jorma Kaukonen 9, 2021
Quarantine Concert Series #38
The Fur Peace Station
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, February 19, 2021
Been So Long
Trouble In Mind
That’ll Never Happen No More
Second Chances
Ninety Nine Year Blues
They Call Me The Breeze with John Hurlbut
Smokestack Lightning with John Hurlbut
Uncle Sam Blues
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
A Walk With Friends
Like I said… 8 degrees when I got up this morning… and then things started to warm. After Izze’s volleyball practice, we collected Vanessa and drove to Columbus for a delicious dinner at Akai Hana, one of Columbus’ premier Asian eatery.
Back home we look forward to warmer if rainy days. Got some great ideas already for #39.
Like so much of our country, Southeast Ohio is cold, cold, cold. My RV is nestling in it’s shed waiting for warmer days and a trip out into the world. As I was walking the dogs this morning in the 18 degree chill, I remembered that years ago in northern Sweden while speed skating I used to imagine I heard the wound of wolves in the darkness that wrapped most of the winter days. I realize now that those circling creatures were only heard by me as I tried to navigate a dark season in my life.
Now the only dark season is the winter outside our windows and the sounds of keening are real too as coyotes roam through our forest here at the Fur Peace Ranch.
Good times!
I’ve had my second Pfizer shot, Spring is distantly visible and we’ve got a live Quarantine Concert (to wit #38) for you all tonight! How good does it have to get?
Take note!
I don’t have the link for tonight’s Quarantine Concert yet but just go to YouTube at 8PM and find Fur Peace TV and we’ll all ‘see’ you then!
Yeah, so last night the City Winery here in Nashville hosted me and a grand time was had… by me, that’s for sure!
Jorma Kaukonen 8, 2021
Jorma Alone
The City Winery
Nashville, Tennessee
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Too Many Years
Hesitation Blues
Serpent Of Dreams
Come Back Baby
Search My Heart
Great Divide Revisited
Sea Child
Trial By Fire
Watch The North Wind Rise
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
How Long Blues
Living In The Moment
Good Shepherd
Whining Boy Blues
Barbeque King
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
I Know You Rider
Embryonic Journey
Awesome sound and great folks down here as always. Getting ready to drive home and try to beat the coming storm. I remind myself that it is still winter. 🙂
Now… tomorrow on Fur Peace TV:
This is another darn good one!
Well, if it weren’t good… we wouldn’t put it up. I’ll be on the chat with Vanessa. ‘See’ you there!
Yeah, S. Clay Wilson shuffled off this mortal coil… As the checkered Demon would say, ‘Nice day for nothin,’ as he got together with his biker buddies, The Flying F*ck’n A Heads. As for R. Crumb, I’ve got all his Heroes Of The Blues trading card sets. We used to sell them at our Company Store. Don’t forget R. Crumbs ‘Cheap Suit Serenaders.’ Let’s not forget Terry Zwigoff. If you haven’t seen Ghost World or Bad Santa get with the program.
Yeah, time is marching on and my generation is trying to hold onto the short end of the stick. We’re all trying to prolong the run as long as possible. With the run in mind, here’s the FLA sdt:
Jorma Kaukonen 7, 2021
Jorma Alone
Old School Square Center For The Arts
Delray Beach
Monday 8, February, 2021
First Set
Dime For Beer
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
Highway Song
River Of Time
Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
Come Back Baby
Blue Railroad Train
Whining Boy Blues
I’ll Be All Right Some Day
Broken Highway
Genesis
Day To Day Out The Window Blues
San Francisco Bay Blues
Second Set:
Vampire Women
Barbeque King
Hesitation Blues
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Great Change
Song For The Stainless Cymbal
Watch The North Wind Rise
Sea Child… tuning fault
Embryonic Journey
Sleep Song
Trial by Fire
Good Shepherd
How Long Blues
Been So Long
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
Encore: Water Song
Not a bad stack of songs if I do say so myself.
Just getting ready to leave Atlanta, next stop… Nashville and the City Winery.
Hey everyone… Monday the First here, and probably there. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. What will Phil say? Hmmm… It’s not that cold here, speaking in terms of East Coast winters… it’s just nasty. Drizzling snow for the last 48. I’m waiting for the mud to seep up to the surface.
#36 was a blast, as always. I hadn’t really thought about Hamilton Camp’s Pride Of Man for over half a century. I remember David Frieberg picking it on some giant 12 string. Cool… anyway…
Jorma Kaukonen 5, 2021
Quarantine Concert Series #36
The Fur Peace Station
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, January 29, 2021
Dime For Beer
Big River Blues
Genesis
Come Back Baby
Dark Holler with John Hurlbut
Pride Of Man with John Hurlbut
A Walk With Friends for M & P
Hesitation Blues
Song From The Stainless Cymbal
Bar Room Crystal Ball
Water Song
After the show Vanessa was still chuckling about 86’ing the nudge who was saying really stupid stuff on the chat feed. My only comment at time was that it’s easy to be a tough guy sitting behind a keyboard, or like my friend Ben H. says, ‘Everyone thinks they’re a trough guy… until they meet one!’ Before I knew it, my pal MIchael M. up Detroit way sent me this great folk tune done by Jeff Daniels.
Caution: Almost every line is marinated in adult lyrics. This one may not be for the faint of heart or the kids in the house.
Good work Jeff…
Sometimes people just confound me. Like we say down here in the country, ‘Oh well.’
In a more upbeat thought process… fortunately it ain’t my business what people think of me. Anyway, thanks to Jeff for writing and singing it and to Mike for sending it to me.
Moving right along. Groundhog Day tomorrow and who knows what next? Nessa and I have more good stuff coming your collective way.
