Vanessa and Izze were up all Wednesday night getting the menu together. Lobster Mac & Cheese, Nessa’s own roasted peppers, Spiral cut ham, Sweet Potato Casserole, Cranberry/Apple/Mango/Cherry sauce, Maple Glaze Delicata Squash, Arugula Salad with Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato. Izze baked a Three Layer Coconut Angel Cake.
A most special feed indeed… all plans came together without drama!
Needless to say this was in same ways a Thanksgiving like no other, but in the last analysis for us, at least, it was a blessing. I’m not going to go into a litany of things Covid-19 has taken from all of us but the Kaukonens have certainly not lost as much as some.
Our Thanksgivings are usually spent on the road with the Hot Tuna gang and we have always loved that. This made a Thanksgiving at home so much the more precious.
We hope all our friends out the had a good one too. We must also point out this:
In a normal world, we’d be at the Beacon or Town Hall like we were last year. In this one, we bring you a streaming concert from the Fur Peace Station. It’s the least we can do. Of course Vanessa and I will be on the feed chatting with you all.
That’s about it for now. As always, more will be revealed!
Well… The above photo was taken a couple of days ago. Before we did the show last night I was definitely suffering from Covid Malaise. It sucked. Yeah I know… don’t cry for me Argentina :). I’m living large down here. Anyway, to be back live again was a big deal for Nessa and me and the team. being back in the saddle again made everything seem OK.
Jorma Kaukonen 35, 2020
Quarantine Concert Series #27
Live From The Fur Peace Station
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Heart Temporary
A Life Well Lived
Corners Without Exits
Broken Highway
Vampire Women
Roads and Roads &
Keep On Truckin’ Mama
Genesis
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
Deportees
Travelin’
The Old Homestead
Yeah.. we had a blast and Johnny and I got to yak about our record and the good folks at Culture Factory for taking our project and just being the best ever to work with!
Sexy Beast
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen.
Apropos of nothing… I took a ride on Nessa’s Sportster the other day.
Here it is folks… the Kaukonen/Hurlbut project, The River Flows
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
Check with your local independent record store for this soon to be released gem. Coming out on Record Store Day/Black Friday and not a moment before. We will have some available from the Company Store here at the Ranch, but so far this is a very limited run. A very high quality package… and the music is damn good too!
Last night I put the splatter vinyl on the Rega turntable.
Lookin’ good and soundin’ good!
Photon by Jorma Kaukonen
I could have gone down to the Studio which is a might fine listening room and where I have my 1962 Marantz pre, Austin and Michaelson TVA-1 power amp and JBL 4312 speakers but instead I opted for my father’s old NAD integrated pre and power and his great Polk Audio speakers.
This project was something I had been thinking about for a long time. Covid-19 gave me the time to make it real. For John and I to have Justin Guip engineer and mix this project was the frosting on the cake!
Culture Factory USA picked up our project immediately and we were thrilled and honored they did so. I couldn’t have asked for a better relationship with a label.
Well… much to my surprise, our friend Mike put me up for a Hometown Hero Award on WSAZ, our local NBC affiliate and they picked me. I mean heck, we do what we can for our community and the Quarantine Concert Series is ongoing but there’s jot much heroism involved in that. Still and all, I humbly accepted the honor on the behalf of all of us here at the Fur Peace Ranch.
It’s nice to be a part of a community. I never really had that before we moved her in 1991. We are blessed!
Now… Saturday the 14… tomorrow that would be, we have a real treat from the vault!
Yeah folks… this was one rockin’ show… plus you get to hear me play Season Of The Witch with the guys. This might be the loudest show we’ve ever had at the Ranch… and that includes Tuna!
Getting chilly out… it’s still fall, but it didn’t feel like it today.
Well… I’ll be teaching tomorrow but I’ll ‘see’ you all on the feed.
Every now and the Nessa and I get to take a morning walk together with our pals. All the pretty leaves are on the ground now… well, most of them but that’s OK.
Last night Jack and I drove up to Columbus for a two show night at the new Natalie’s. Lovely venue… our first time there. Many thanks to Natalie, her dad and Alec Whiteman for making a safe evening most enjoyable!
A two show night, of course!
Hot Tuna 24, 2020
The Acoustic Duo
Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady
Early Show
Natalie’s
Columbus, Ohio
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
True Religion
Second Chances
Broken Highway
Hesitation Blues
Letter To The North Star
Parchman Farm
In The Kingdom
Trial By Fire
Great Divide Revisited
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Candy Man
How Long Blues
San Francisco Bay Blues
Encore: Embryonic Journey
Hot Tuna 25, 2020
The Acoustic Duo
Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady
Late Show
Natalie’s
Columbus, Ohio
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Dime For Beer
Whining Boy Blues
Let us Get Together Right Down Here
Been So Long
Barbeque King
West Coast Blues
Highway Song
Sleep Song
Watch The North Wind Rise
Good Shepherd
Song For The Stainless Cymbal
Another Man Done Gone
That’ll Never Happen No More
Come Back Baby
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
Encore: Waiting For A Train
Nessa and Perseus aka Chunky
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
Indeed it is Veteran’s Day 2020 and so as I honor all of our veteran’s I think of my dad and his two brothers.
Jorma Sr. in ’44 getting ready to set sail for the Pacific.
Photographer unknown
While dad was getting ready to leave San Francisco for the Far East, Uncle Tarmo was in Sicily.
Tarmo, the uncle I never met
Photographer unkown
For Tarmo, a relaxing moment out of the line of fire. North Aftrica, Sicily, Italy… those were his venues. He made it through all those campaigns to die in a VA hospital in Memphis in 1945 from lung cancer.
My uncle Pentti
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen Sr.
So my uncle Pen… he was army… South Pacific. Carried a flame thrower… went into tunnels. He would have been a tunnel rat in Vietnam. He came up through Leyte. After the Philippines were liberated he would run into his brother, my dad, outside of Manila. The only thing he ever said to me about the war was, ‘Your dad never had to pull the trigger himself.’ I’m not a vet so I’m unequipped to really speak about hidden truths here. There are no pictures that I have of Pen in the service. I only know that something happened to him out there in the Pacific that could never be fixed. He died in a VA hospital back in the 70’s when he was a quarter of a century younger than I am today. I think he died of a broken heart.
He was my friend.
Not much more for me to say today on this.
I honor them all… all those who served and are serving!
Yeah, so last night’s Quarantine Concert Series was # 26. We taped that show four or five days ago because… our drummer Justin Guip drove down from Upstate New York and the Electric Trio spent yesterday afternoon recording a rockin’ HFT show to be aired the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
You’re welcome… 🙂
While I was on the feed last night after our recording the recurring question was about live… recorded… blah blah blah. I get it. We’re keeping good stuff coming for you folks and doing what we have to do to make it happen! Here’s last night’s set list:
Hot Tuna 23, 2020
Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady
Quarantine Concert Series #26
Fur Peace Ranch
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, November 7 , 2020
Candy Man
Ode To Billy Dean
Living Just For You
Living In The Moment
In The Kingdom
The Terrible Operation
Letter To The North Star
Bar Room Crystal Ball
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
That’ll Never Happen No More
That’ll have to do for now. The QCS means so much to us and it is our pleasure and honor to bring it/them to you.
Yeah, here we are with our final camp weekend of 2020. Not exactly how we planned it… but like they say, you can make planes but you can’t plan the outcome. Hey, like you all out there, we’re just trying to roll with the punches life throws at us and keep smiling!
OK… # 25 last night!
Hot Tuna 22, 2020
Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady
With Special Guest
Larry Campbell
Quarantine Concert Series #25
Fur Peace Ranch
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday, October 30, 2020
Been So Long
I’ll Be All Right Some Day
Uncle Sam Blues
Sleep Song
Free From The Chain Gang with Larry Campbell
Larry Campbell, Scottish instrumental medley… awesome!
Larry Campbell, Blind Mary
Ain’t In No Hurry with Larry Campbell
What Are They Doing In Heaven Today
Let Us Get Together Right Down Here with Larry Campbell
Another great Quarantine Concert Series Night… if indeed there’s anything great about being quarantined.
My old friend Cecilia passed yesterday morning. I first met her in 1964 when I came up to San Francisco from Santa Clara as a young college student looking for some affordable good food. I wandered into her first restaurant, the Mandarin, which was on Polk St. back then. I was a young nobody, but she treated me with respect. We became friends and when I moved to San Francisco in 1965 and she moved the Mandarin to Ghirardelli Square I followed her there. Later on in life we would be neighbors in St. Francis Wood.
It was my great honor for her to meet our daughter Izze in 2018. Of course I considered any time spent with Cecilia to be an honor.
So Myron and I had a spirited run from Pomeroy to Connecticut to New Hampshire and home… 1700 some miles. Some interesting weigh-ins on the RV… or Hawke as we affectionately call her in the comments section. I’ve been driving for 65 years as of this year. I might have profiled at some other point in my life but with a 17,000 pound vehicle and passengers in my charge, this is not time to be hanging out the window. This rig is eight and a half feet wide. The drivers compartment is not that much smaller than a Prevost. That Ford F-35 chassis with a Triton 3 valve V-10 has almost as much torque as my Cummins Diesel. She sh-ts and gits when she has to as well. I should have done this years ago. Anyway, it was a great trip musically and scenically. Strange to say, leaves were still on the trees.
Anyway, as noted, Ridgefield was great and Tupelos up in Derry was awesome as well. They did about 130 shows outdoors this year of which ours was the last.
Jorma Kaukonen 33, 2020
Tupelo Drive-In
Early Show (Noon)
Derry, New Hampshire
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Whining Boy Blues
Candy Man
Ice Age
Been So Long
Barbeque King
Search My Heart
Trial By Fire
Sleep Song
I Am The Light Of This World
Blue Railroad Train
Great Divide Revisited
Come Back Baby
Things That Might Have Been
Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
How Long Blues
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
Encore: Embryonic Journey
This was a noon show and there was still a chill in the air. Heck, we were up in Vermont., not a big surprise. On the other hand, the 3 PM show was so warm I did it in my T shirt. Go figure.
Jorma Kaukonen 34, 2020
Tupelo Drive-In
3 PM Show
Derry, New Hampshire
Sunday, October 25, 2020
1. Dime For Beer
2. I See The Light
3. San Francisco Bay Blues
4. Day To Day Out The Window Blues
5. Things That Might Have Been
6. True Religion
7. Sea Child
8. Good Shepherd
9. Watch The North Wind Rise
10. Highway Song
11. The Terrible Operation
12. Trouble In Mind
13. Death Don’t Have Know Mercy
14. That’ll Never Happen No More
15. Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning
16. Encore: Water Song
(Hm… format discrepancies… don’t sweat it!)
Oops… Ridgefield list:
Jorma Kaukonen 31, 2020
The Ridgefield Playhouse
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Early Show
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Too Many Years
Ice Age
Whining Boy Blues
Barbeque King
In The Kingdom
Sea Child
Song For The Stainless Cymbal
I Am The Light Of This World
Uncle Sam Blues
Serpent of Dreams
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Follow The Drinking Gourd
Another Man Done Gone
Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
I Know You Rider
Encore: Embryonic Journey
Jorma Kaukonen 32, 2020
The Ridgefield Playhouse
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Late Show
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Been So Long
Dime For Beer.
River Of Time
99 Year Blues
I See The Light
Sleep Song
Good Shepherd
Watch The North Wind Rise
Day To Day Out The Window Blues
Hesitation Blues
Hamar Promenade
Trouble In Mind
How Long Blues
Waiting For A Train
3rd Week In The Chelsea
S.F. Bay Blues
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
Encore: Water Song
We drove home 600 and change yesterday and as much as I like my ‘RV King’ there’s no place like the home bunk!
So… this weekend we’ve got # 25 of the Corona Concert Series and I’ll post the link as we get closer to the weekend. In the meantime, stay well…
Wait, there’s more. The Hurl/Kaukonen opus is emerging soon…
Fancy limited edition vinyl
We’re over the moon on this one. Don’t be late, they’re limited… limited I say.
