Sunday, June 7, 2020

Our 10^th Quarantine Concert evolved last night and as it always days it once again gave me a sense of purpose and removed the stress that had been building up all week. We really had such lovely goings on at the Ranch this week it sometimes seemed hard to realize that our world here in the States was… well the way it was. I did have some reminders though. There was this one POS who has been trying to get his comments approved. He’s anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic and generally speaking a waste of human skin. The mere fact that I read his shit before I deleted it made me want to take a bath! I have prided myself on not being heavy handed in the editorial department but I’m done with that laissez-faire nonsense.  I will do my best not to let the enemy at the gate in… in any way, shape or form. My wife and daughter have both been protesting and that’s a good thing. If you can’t stand up for what you believe in there’s not much point in being human.

Anyway, all this real life conspired to really put me off my feed as the week rolled on. When we went live for Quarantine Concert #10, all that melted away for a couple of hours. The music and the human interaction nourishes my soul.

Here’s what we played:

Jorma Kaukonen 11, 2020

 #10 Of The Quarantine Concert Series

Live From The Fur Peace Ranch

Fur Peace Station

Darwin, Ohio

Saturday June 6, 2020

1. Heart Temporary
2. New Song For The Morning
3. San Francisco Bay Blues
4. Blues Stay Away From Me with Vanessa
5. A Little More Faith In Jesus with Vanessa
6. Walls Of Time with Myron Hart
7. Been So Long
8. Travelin’ with John Hurlbut
9. Get Together with John Hurlbut
10. Follow The Drinking Gourd
11. That’ll Never Happen No More

It’s been a while since Nessa and I sang together on stage. It was a real treat for me. So much for my world for now. Looks like a little yard work is calling my name.

Stay well!

Foto by Myron Hart

Today the Fur Peace Ranch was open for a panini lunch and we hosted twenty guests. It’s the first time we’ve been open for anything since The Crises began and we were so grateful to be able to do it. I picked a bunch of songs and of course had Hurl join me for two tunes.

Jorma Kaukonen 10, 2020

 #1 Of The Panini Lunch Sessions

Live From The Fur Peace Ranch

& The Beatrice Love Kitchen

Friday, June 5, 2020

1. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
2. Search My Heart
3. Letter To The North Star
4. Sea Child
5. Living In The Moment
6. Oklahoma Hills with John Hurlbut
7. She Belongs To Me with John Hurlbut
8. Follow The Drinking Gourd
9. In My Dreams
10. I Know You Rider

Selfie by Myron Hart

Yeah… really good times in this time of not such good times. We are so blessed!

Now:

What a great day. Hope to see everyone 6/6/20… tomorrow night at eight PM.

Stay well…

Drone Foto by Jorma Kaukonen

Justin set up his studio in the workshop on Sunday and we settled in for the Jorma Kaukonen/John Hurlbut project. I had been thinking about doing this project for some time and this just seemed seemed like the right moment to get it done.

Our good friend Justin drove down from Upstate New York and with Myron’s able assistance the studio gear moved from the SUV to the Fur Peace Ranch Workshop. The workshop has been empty for over two months now wo it was a treat to be bouncing musical life off the walls again. Normally when Justin Guip is seen with us, it is as our drummer in Hot Tuna… but there is so much more to this man. A master in the studio, he is also a great chef. He’s the man.

Anyway, he brought the good stuff for this recording session and for all you gear heads out there, here is the data:

Justin’s Gear List

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Jorma Kaukonen’s Guitar Chain

1. Telefunken Elam 251 Tube Condenser Mike (neck)
2. Beyer Dynamic M-160 Ribbon Mike (bridge)
3. API 3124 Mike pre’s
4. API 5500   Equalizers
5. Vintage Neve 33609 Compressor
6. Apogee A/D converters at 24 bit 96K sampling rate

John’s Guitar:

1. Brauner VM-1 Tube Condenser Mike
2. Beyer Dynamic M-160 Ribbon Mike (bridger)
3. API 3124 Mike pre’s
4. API 5500   Equalizers
5. API 2500 Compressor
6. Apogee A/D converters at 24 bit 96K sampling rate

Vocal Chain:

1. Neumann U-87
2. Into a Shadow Hill Mono Gamma Mike Pre
3. Into a Pultec EQP 500A Equalizer
4. Into a Urei 1178 Compressor

Room Mike:

Stereo Room Mikes,  Audio Technica 4047

Into Drawmer 1969  Mercenary Edition Vacuum Tube Compressor Pre-Amp

Recorded into Pro Tools Version 12

It was a closed session, no kibitzing although Vanessa did drop in to sing on a track.  We cut fourteen songs in two days and they’re all winners. I really loved being able to just accompany John and help him tell the story without being concerned with being Jorma or a member of Hot Tuna, if you know what I mean. Hey, I get to do it all. How good does it have to get?

Foto by Wendy

Two days… fourteen takes. Not bad if we do say so ourselves. Oh yeah, I played the 1958 J-50 I got at Pop’s Music in Dayton, Ohio in 1960. Hurl played his 20 year old J-45 he picked up at Merlefest two decades ago.

To be surrounded with such relative peace in these more than trying times was a blessing of immeasurable magnitude. Now back to our real world such as it is and already thinking about the set list for Quarentine Concert #10.

As for the real world, I’m not blind to what is going on in this country and in the world right now. That’s an encyclopedia unto itself. I may weigh in on this tomorrow… or I may just vote, as I suggest that you all do.

Driving on…

Well… Another truly enjoyable show from us here at the Fur Peace Ranch to you all out there in the world.

 #9 Of The Quarantine Concert Series

Live From The Fur Peace Ranch

Fur Peace Station

Darwin, Ohio

Saturday May 30, 2020

1. Izze’s Lullaby
2. 99 Year Blues
3. Ode To Billy Dean
4. Song From The Stainless Cymbal
5. I Belong To The Band
6. Stand By Me with John Hurlbut
7. Chimes Of Freedom with John Hurlbut
8. Vampire Women
9. Rock Me Baby
10. Sleep Song
11. What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?
12. Let Us Get Together Right Down Here

Justin Guip and John Hurbut and I started working on the John & Jorma album today. We put in an eight hour day so I’m going to let this go for now and go into detail about the project tomorrow.

As for now… stay well!

Soon indeed… like tonight!

Here we go…

And if you haven’t already subscribed, please do. It’s free, and it helps in YouTube world.

Short and to the point today. Gotta get o the set list for tonight!

Stay Well

I need to start by thanking everyone for their thoughtful and gentle comments this Memorial Day Weekend. Of all the weekends in the year I didn’t want to have to wade into someone whose presence I took issue with, this was the one. I’m not a vet, but I appreciate all the men and women who gave their last full measure of devotion so that all of us still sharing space in this great country can live free. Words seem so paltry considering their great sacrifice.

It was one of those rare days I was furloughed to just… well, do what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was to go on a motorcycle ride… grab some gone… whatever. Well, that’s what I did and what a day!

When it is beautiful down here in South East Ohio… it is really beautiful. This was one of those days. I threw my leg over Black Beauty’s saddle, headed to Athens where I met my friend Greg and we embarked on a hundred and fifty some mile over hills and valleys, past lakes and by rivers.

It was awesome!

OK… this was my day off. Nose back to the grindstone tomorrow working on songs for #9 this Saturday. I think I have some goodies waiting to be heard.

I was up at 0530 this morning… this could be an early night. A Roy Rogers used to say:

‘May the good Lord take a likin’ to ya!’

Indeed…

Another more than fulfilling evening for us here at the Fur Peace Ranch. Another Tune with Myron Hart, two with John Hurlbut and we dealt Vanessa in for John’s second song, Feels Like A Long Time.

Jorma Kaukonen 8, 2020

 #8 Of The Quarantine Concert Series

Live From The Fur Peace Ranch

Fur Peace Station

Darwin, Ohio

Saturday May 23, 2020

1. Search My Heart
2. How Long Blues
3. Babe I Want You To Know
4. Broken Highway
5. A Walk With Friends
6. Deep Mine Blues with Myron Hart
7. Keep On Truckin’ Mama
8. Hickory Wind with John Hurlbut
9. Seems Like A Long Time with John Hurlbut & Vanessa Kaukonen
10. Corners Without Exits
11. Walkin’ Blues
12. Roads and Roads &

I’m already thinking about next weeks songs, but I took a couple of hours off this afternoon for a magnificent motorcycle ride in eighty degrees under blue skies. What a change from the past week.

Last but absolutely not least for this entry. Honor Memorial Day… My father Jorma Sr. and his two brothers Tarmo and Pentti… WWII vets all. John Hurlbut’s dad Ray… gone a year now and all the other brave men and women… I honor them all.

So… tonight at Eight PM Eastern Time we’ll be kicking off the Eighth episode of our Quarantine Concert Series. We’ve been holding off the link until late in the day because of some hacking issues we’ve had over the past couple of weeks. Remember, if you hit a paywall, it’s not us. We’re free, and always will be. If you somehow miss getting our link and advance, simply go to Fur Peace TV on YouTube at eight PM on Saturday and join in the fun. OK…

Yeah, so this is a totally new version of WordPress and frankly, I’m struggling, but as always in these trying times, it could be worse.

We’re trying to ready the Fur Peace Ranch for whatever comes next. Of course, like all other businesses large and small. We’re looking forward to opening with as little danger possible to us, our guests and the community.

We hope you have a great day and that you join us tonight at eight.

Stay well

Yeah… so in the process of changing servers, a lot of stuff happened that turned out to be very inconveniencing. That’s modern life, and it could be worse. In the process of getting back on line my WordPress interface updated itself. I’ve been avoiding this for a long time because I know how the older version works but oh well… it was not to be. OK. I’m in the throes of learning the new program and if I can keep from throwing my computer out the window in the process… I’ll be all right. I’m a slow learner…

The rain has been relentless here… a non-stop soaker. The ground everywhere is saturated and we’re expecting flooding. Thank goodness the Fur Peace Ranch is above the flood plain. Grey and more grey… rain and more rain. Again… it could be worse for us. I just recorded a podcast with my blues buddy from Chicago, Dave Specter. His cast, Blues From The Inside Out is awesome. Check it out. When we get to be around people again, I want to get him down to the Ranch.

Well, that’s about it for now. Gotta work on some tunes for #8.

Stay well…

We’ve been having some server issues and as a result I lost almost two weeks of my blog. Yeah, I know… it could be a lot worse. Anyway, doin’ some reconstruction and trying to learn a new program. I’m on it and we’ll see what happens.

Thanks all…