So, Wednesday last, Jack and I went to Philly to be a part of the opening of the Bill Graham Exhibit at the National Museum Of American Jewish History… right down by Independence Hall… ground zero for our experiment in Democracy.
Beautiful day for a drive...
Our hotel was in the heart of everything… nice day for a walk.
Now this is a lobby!
We had some time before sound check to look around.
The steeple at Independence Hall
I didn’t notice you had to go through security to get in the area, so I jumped the fence. The police immediately pointed out my mistake.
George Washington looks on...
All these years, and I had never stopped here before.
One great aphorism after another...
The museum on the mall was filled with really great stuff!
Couldn't have said it btter myself...
Yeah… this was a really great day!
The National Museum Of American Jewish History... awesome!
Only in America... indeed!
Happening today!
At the Museum, before the hang...
Jack and I enjoy spending some memory time in Bill Graham Land!
We met some great folks… told some stories and played some music.
Hot Tuna 24, 2016
Acoustic Duo
Jack Casady & Jorma Kaukonen
National Museum Of American Jewish History
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
1. True Religion
2. What Are They Doing In Heaven Today
3. Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
4. River Of Time
5. 99 Year Blues
6. Sea Child
7. Hesitation Blues
8. Water Song
Then Myron and I drove home to Meigs County… in time for the Paw Paw Festival in Albany.
Pulling into Paw Paw land
The annual Paw Paw Festival is such a blast. Glad I was here to hang with Vanessa and the kids!
Lunch time!
Yeah, I love those smoothies… but every now and then a man needs a dog!
Potato tornado
We denied cotton candy, but knuckled under for a potato tornado!
Tents in the twilight
Lots of friends and neighbors… good times!
The band gets ready to rock!
Nothing like a little fun in the country! We got a ride in a cart pulled by a team of Percherons… under the harvest moon.
Harvest moon over the hill
Great stuff… the best!
Tonight at the Fur Peace Ranch we are hosting Maria Muldaur.
On this lovely almost Fall Day… life is good indeed!
Onward!
OT
RIP Stanley Dural, Jr. AKA Buckwheat Zydeco, an American musical icon.
Didn’t mean to step on Bill Graham’s horror. His mother bravely figured out how to send him off as a French child in an exchange with German children. He then got one of the few rare passes to America at the time. Something out of a biblical tale. His hero mother and sister were then burned at Auschwitz…This man unleashed color and sound on San Francisco in the heyday of 60’s psychedelic rock…
Today is the last Vin Scully broadcast I will ever listen to in real time.
For me, since ’63, it’s been a grand time, Sculpt
Forgot to mention we walked to the Fillmore Auditorium that is still there. Got a cell video. Winterland was demolished. Did a radio show on KPOO about Jimi…
Love SF and the Russian River valley – lucky guy.
Forgot to mention it was weird having my friend show me his backyard garden up by the Russian River and instead of cucumbers and tomatoes there was a good fenced-in patch of high grade cannabis.
Jack’s Facebook page has gone private so I can’t read his stuff any more. 🙁
I had the pleasure of visiting San Francisco for the first time in late July. On I-5 it was 106 degrees coming up from LA. Up on California St it was 52 at 10pm at night. I was shivering in summer with the Pacific wind and fog while trying to get my Levi’s jacket out of the car. Walked around Haight and saw where the Kantner tribute was. Tried to buy ‘Bathing At Baxters’ but Amoeba didn’t have it in stock. Saw the Dead and Janis houses and then walked over to Fulton for a selfie in front of the Jefferson Airplane pillared embassy. No one was there to take my application for sanctuary. Strolled Golden Gate Park and saw some beautiful flowers. A really good jazz band was playing in an underpass and I did a rhythm step by them that caught their eye but they didn’t skip a beat. On the drive in from the Oakland Bay Bridge you could just see the fog pouring over the hilltops in fast enough slow motion to just be able to perceive it like a sci-fi movie. Weird effect that I’m positive would be enhanced by certain chemicals popular in the area in the past. In fact I was offered some but declined…Would have jumped at the chance around 40 years ago…Walked to North Beach and Pacific Heights…Got a good taste of the city and I love it…Got a Hendrix book I was looking for at City Lights just for the sake of getting a book there…I could see this sea-cooled incubator of a city giving birth to a beautiful band…California, weird but beautiful place…
Thursday was the first day of Street Vibrations in Reno/Carson city.
10-15 minutes or so of persisent, somewhat hard rain, gonna fall
Messed up the chrome on a few thousand rides.
@Jim Bacon, for more Jorma and Jack stories, on YouTube there is a series of videos covering a great interview at the Grammy Museum, I think there are 4 parts and the boys cover a lot of history, it is in regards to Jefferson Airplane’s lifetime achievement Grammy.
@john b, would love to see John Prine at the ranch, that’s up to Jorma to coax him to the ranch.
Love Jorma’s stories
“so I jumped the fence”… This made me laugh!
Words are just words indeed. I don’t think any one of us can understand what Holocaust survivors went through and how much things like luck, skill divine intervention or the sacrifice of others went in to their survival. At one time I was married into a family with a number of survivors from the camps and although they rarely spoke of it, they all experienced unspeakable horrors that as native born Americans few of us can even comprehend. However what struck me the most about them was their complete joy of life and how grateful they were to have been allowed to come to this country and start new lives and create new families. They all achieved things in this country that they never could have in Europe even before the war. With all the problems that we do have as a country, I think we as a nation get caught up in too many superficial things, get too divided over politics and place too much importance on things of no real consequence. I for one remain grateful for the blessing I do have hope to never take for granted the freedoms I have as an American
Mitzvah in Philly indeed! Thank you Jorma.To me, Bill Graham stood for so much more than rock and roll notwithstanding his importance to the industry and culture. His life story is so much more important.
Ditto on Ham N Eggs.
@Ham n Eggs
@Jeff
@Mike Anderson Get Prine to come to the Ranch.
Really an amazing story@johno
At the closing of Winterland i saw him standing outside and he looked busy so i was hesitant to approach him and when i did i put out my hand he took hold of it smiled amd said “thanks for coming.” I was Thrilled that he would take a moment and speak with me. I had attended the Dead run at Winterland when they returned from Egypt and was made to feel right at home by his staff. It wasnt till much later that i learned of his history and i was saddened when he passed. Bill was certainly the right person at the right time wasnt he? Funny how it sometimes works out like that.
I met Bill Graham once while waiting for a Garcia on Broadway show in NYC. He came flying down the aisle and I stopped him and shook his hand and thanked him for all the years of great music that he made sure we got to hear. He even found a way to make it fun to have somebody from security stop you from smoking pot in the Fillmore East. Baruch Ha-Shem for Bill Graham!
American Icons – Independence Hall and Hot Tuna
I didn’t know that you guys were playing in Philadelphia . I didn’t see anything about this anywhere. Wondering how George would have felt about seeing security question you.
I don’t mean to take anything away from Bill Graham. I respect a man that went through all he did and came out the other side. He was a good businessman and did a lot of good for the rock n roll industry.
I got another check on my bucket list, I know from your appearance at “Love for Levon” you had mentioned your admiration of this musical talent, this past Saturday I was privileged to be able to see John Prine live. A two time cancer survivor put on a nearly 3 hour show at the beautiful Warner Theater in Torrington, CT. I saw John Hammond, Hot Tuna and Leon Russell at this same venue. Outside the restaurants in the vicinity, next door, etc. had table and chairs wet up outside on a cool September evening, a great show. Jorma, you and Jack need to catch one of his shows, you won’t regret it, especially if he’s a peer you respect.
Great piece here on Bill Graham, so glad his efforts and ground breaking businesses are being full recognized. A great man, flawed like the rest of us but a genious!
Long live-Kinks
Barbara…it never fails. When I need to put a smile on my mug, I start with Apeman, followed by the always effervescent Victoria.
Amazing, they still have the same effect on me years later. What is it about music?
You sir, are a Mensch, in every sense of the word. Thank you.
Isn’t it true that Graham was the Bill Gates of concert promoters? I’m sure that others also brought in the great blues men to play with the rock and roll acts, but it feels like he started it.
Bill Graham in terms of his production acumen brought the fire to the cauldron.
It was always a good stew..
Sounds like that might have been the same Bill Graham show that we saw at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco a few months back. We loved it, especially the detail about his early experiences in WWII and his early days in the USA. And of course the music that was playing throughout our visit was the best 🙂 He was a complex and remarkable guy, a product of his times, and a definer of our times.
I heard something about that before and I’m sure Bill Graham had a different, bright side. But to an impressionable twenty year old he just came off as mean and volatile. I was taken aback when he started screaming at you and Jack.
@Jorma
Maybe but nobody put on shows like Mr. Graham did.
One of the great losses. I think the Fillmore East Site would now be a cultural learning performing annex for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame instead of a Bank.
Peace
Love All Ways
The only time I ever saw Bill Graham was back in the mid-seventies. It was up in Madison WI at the Cook County Coliseum. HT was opening for Santana and Tuna was doing a sound check. Graham was cursing at Jack and Jorma using every 4 letter word in the book – not a pretty site. He seemed like a mean old SOB.
Words are just words… Bill was a Holocaust Survivor… His parents died on the way to Auschwitz… he came to America as an orphan on a Kindertransport… Jack and Bill and I had a relationship of mutual respect… if he was yelling, we tortured him in some way. That said, we loved each other. As for profanity, I can and do use it as colorfully as my Dad always did. I’m not very thin skinned… I can take it, or give it back.
Whether or not one liked Bill Graham, he defined the music scene of the 60’s as much as Chet Helms did. Don’t forget the free red apples… that was because in the orphanage he crawled through the barbed wire to steal red apples to feed his ‘brothers an sisters.’ That’s why the apples were always red at the Fillmore.
Deep stuff…
Oh, I absolutely love Maria. A sweet heart to go with that sweet voice. A great show is in store for all.
Jorma….you are the best. Please bring an electric Hot Tuna show to Salt Lake!
Funny thing is , I met Myron in Carson City. He’s a totally relaxed dude, you’re lucky to have him, also the other way ’round 😉
Jorma & Jack…I’m quite sure Bill would be proud of you guys today, and your honouring his memory with an Acoustic Tuna set.
I cannot wait to see you in Santa Cruz, and SF Electric Hot Tuna 3-piece!