Foto by Jack Casady
So Jack got a chance for a quick roots trip back to D.C. where we are both from. This is where I grew up when we were in the States. We didn’t have all those bushes in the yard back then. I push mowed that hill and the yard many times. We were the motor for the mower.
Back in Ohio, Jack and I rehearsed and gathered for one last concert before he headed back to L.A. We got more than a lot done and it was so great to be able to hang with my old bud.
Hot Tuna 18, 2020
The Acoustic Duo
#14 Of The Quarantine Concert Series
Fur Peace Station
Darwin, Ohio
Saturday July 18, 2020
- I See The Light
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
- Follow The Drinking Gourd
- Day To Day Out The Window Blues
- Corners Without Exits
- River Of Time… with Balalaika
- Parchman Farm
- Mann’s Fate
- Song From The Stainless Cymbal
- Come Back Baby
- Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
It just won’t be the same without him, but we’ll all keep on keeping on. I’m already thinking about tunes for this weekend and Jack will hopefully be back on his high chair in front of his mega TV playing along.
Good times…
That’s it for now…
Stay well!
I have a little story to tell you which, if you have time to read it, you might like.
Way back in 1973, I was a Junior Year Abroad exchange student at U.S. Santa Cruz, my first ever trip outside the UK where I was a student at Sussex University. My grant didn’t cover travel to the US and as I’d heard that hitching a ride could be a problem in the States, I got a cheap student flight from London to Quebec, hitchhiked coast to coast and got a train from Vancouver down to Oakland. When I finally made it to Santa Cruz, one of the first things I did was to go to a pawn shop and buy an old battered cassette tape recorder. To prove it worked, the guy in the shop put in some old self-recorded cassette that a previous customer had left and he let me keep it when I bought the player.
Back in my dorm room, I played the tape and recognised Peter Paul and Mary and also The Band, but there was this third recording I couldn’t place. It was an acoustic blues group that I had never heard before playing a lot of superb stuff I’d never come across. It also sounded like it had been recorded live. During the year I was at UCSC I became more and more enthusiastic about this recording and kept asking people if they recognised it. No-one did. Anyone who had a vague interest in the blues was dragged into my dorm to hear it, but no-one could identify the band.
Back in the UK I had the same reaction. People really liked the music but had no idea who was playing it. Eventually I gave up and just played the tape.
In 1993 – 20 years later, I was working in Sweden and got invited round for dinner at some colleague’s house. After the meal and a goodly amount of wine, the hostess said “Hey let’s play some old music” and put on a vinyl record. You’ve guessed it – she put on the very same recording that had been bugging me for 20 years. She must have thought I was crazy as I rushed over to see what it was, found it was Hot Tuna 1969 ( the one where someone drops a beer glass). I was ecstatic and almost in tears – at last I’d found the answer!
God knows what those nice Swedish people say when they recall their dinner with a strange Englishman, but I came home and started buying up all the Hot tuna CD albums I could find! I was also really mad when I discovered that Hot Tuna had been regulars at the Santa Cruz Roadhouse all the time I had been there. One day I am determined to see Jorma live, but until then, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the great music and especially now with the Quarantine Concerts!
Nice John… You can’t make this stuff up. Stay well…
@Bennett H Horowitz
I would like to second this motion: a release of acoustic versions of some of the songs from “the rampage years.”
Peace and love, peace and love.
-Ringo
Thanks again to you, Jorma, and Jack for doing these wonderful shows — especially while we have been stuck at home. During an otherwise bleak time period, you have given us fans something uplifting to which we can look forward every weekend. Since the acoustic duo reworked so many tunes we thought we already knew from electric format, it would be very cool to have these fresh performances released as a new CD package.
The concert Saturday night was wonderful and the sound was great…It is so heart warming to see you and Jack together again not just as musicians but as life long friends. Reminds me so much of how Chris and I are when we get together. Corners was absolutely beautiful and Come Back Baby just rocked it…maybe Rock Me Baby can be in the near future.
Lovin the pictures on the Lake, hope Vanessa is feeling better.
Stay Safe and so looking forward to #15.
Thanks for all you guys do, it is much appreciated.
🙂
I watched #14 again last night. Trying to connect lakes Baikal, Titicaca, and Tahoe. Deepest, highest, and …? An inside joke, perhaps? All in all, a mighty fine show.
Brendan: The bar by the foot of the hill on Broadway by the elevated subway was the “Terminal Bar”…It just came back to me…
The best part about dad’s trip was mother saying she didn’t care as long as he made his appointment that day (damn the aliens as long as they don’t muss the lawn)…
That story about your Dad getting dosed was wonderful.
Perhaps you could play that 78 you talked about on a future Q show. Would love to hear how you guys sounded in the 50’s with Jack on lead guitar
Great house Jorma!
Love the attic, the porch and the flag.
I guess Jack lived nearby.
It’d be cool also seeing Jack’s boyhood house.
If you never met Jack, we wouldn’t have had JA/Hot Tuna.
Imagine that!
Brendan: I enjoyed that post…I attended Manhattan College nearby but by the time I went there they had realized the shambles caused by that music and movement and stopped having concerts there…Air America is some part of history to be part of…I’m pretty sure Hendrix never played Gaelic Park so who played that national anthem I don’t know…I can’t remember the name of that bar on Broadway just below Manhattan College…Needless to say it was my favorite college course…
Crosby can be found on Twitter and answers questions freely…I bet he’ll give you good memories if you ask him about your father…
@Jorma
I understand. I recently listened to a right wing blowhard and placated, instead of excusing myself, then made your blog about my stuff. Jack’s picture really did bring back memories. Guess my thoughts are distorted.
@Joe K
Cool.
Fantastic show Saturday night! You guys seemed really inspired. Maybe because you hadn’t played together in a while. I really enjoyed the stories and the music. I don’t remember Jack ever talking that much during shows, but it was definitely a welcome addition. The real highlight for me without a doubt was “Song from the Stainless Cymbal.” Not sure if you’ve ever played that acoustically but “it worked”. Thanks so much for the shows!
@carey georgas
When I was young following my Dad into Commercial Carpentry he always would say ” as time goes by new tools & methods will come along. The old way may be better at times but don’t shun newer or faster ways”
My older brother in Maine is the true wood maker in the family & it is just a hobby to him
I like the double entendre – work in progress. How do you progress if your thoughts regress? More time in the past means less time in the now. What a body is, hopefully, is always more than it was. That’s how the work progresses, no?
@Jorma History has a funny way of repeating itself.
Jorma thank you thank you. You & Jack got better three weeks in a row. I will miss that interplay, but will not for the life of me miss one of your podcasts!
It seemed to me this last one you were maybe trying to showcase the legendary HotTuna jam/improv abilities. Several songs using the Em approach, and Drinking Gourd Am.
I was enthralled!
@Brendan Carroll
Feel free to delete.
@Jorma
Head noise disguised as thought. Sorry.
@Brendan Carroll, I somehow think that Nixon supporters at a Gaelic Park show in the early 70s would have kept their sympathies well hidden or they would have left wearing lots of beer and cigarettes and other trash generated during the show.
Similar to home I lived in till 12, with a couple less flights to climb. Couldn’t wait till I was big enough to push the mower! Needed sharp blades, strong legs, and a scythe. How was ac at your place?
Bedroom I shared with my brother was on a taller third floor, which could be stifling this time of year. Now and then I’d lay in bed and listen to music coming up from a show at Gaelic Park to the west. Much different than what I was used to, but I liked some (probably in Ireland when Airplane gigged, where one needed a sweater in July, but not now). Recognized Pink Floyd right off when I heard them years later. One time some strange sounding National Anthem caught my attention and midway through gave me headache to end all.
David Crosby’s ancestors purchased all lands in that area in mid 17th Century, which included first Dutch settlement in New Amsterdam (Manhattan was a peninsula). In 77′ Dad took a gig running a small charter outfit that sometimes flew acts out of Bridgeport into regional airports for shows. Not his favorite task, but he said the guys from CSN were OK, even liked what they played. Dad is/was wicked smart and said Crosby knew what was going on in the World. The old man certainly did, he’d been with Air America and went back later. He also was/is a liberal Democrat whose worldviews align with that of informed citizens who think for themselves.
So aside from taking your advice and writing my own book (here), I’m wondering aloud how those electric folkies who played Gaelic Park back in the day would respond to heckling from Nixon supporters. I’m not suggesting you should be voice of boomers, but I hope you’re not censoring yourself. Just saying, as I didn’t find a Crosby blog.
Also, please post more pictures from Cassidy’s cross-country drive – giant balls of string and such.
I seriously doubt if there were many Nixon supporters at any of our collective gigs. We were pretty much preaching to the choir. As for people that didn’t agree with the position of the so called counter culture, the Airplane couldn’t have cared less. Wait, that’s not strictly true. It gave the vocal members of the band and instant pulpit. Lastly… I don’t censor myself. As a work in progress, except for my book, Been So Long, I have little desire to revisit the past in public.
Stay well…
Here’s a story for you. It was 1967–Jeff Airplane played a concert at Lehigh University. After the concert, on our request, you and Jack brought little practice amps to the apartment of one of the comrades (on 4th Street in Bethlehem, PA), hunkered down and started to play. We were students at the U., but also budding musicians. I listened to every note you and Jack exchanged in your musical conversation, you went on and on, maybe every now and again you would suddenly stop, and say, no, what you meant was … and then pick up exactly where you left off and kept going! Intricate, deep, meaningful. That was the education I was longing for back then– thanks for doing that. Glad you’ve kept making music, I’ve kept playing too. That’s over fifty years ago now.
Still having that conversation… it never gets old… does it?
@carey georgas
No worries, Carey. I used to write some corrections at the New York Times, among other tasks. We’re all human!
Hey Jorma – thanks so much for puttin’ all the music out there – even though the concert room is empty we are all sitting around the big (virtual)campfire listening to all your tunes and stories to warm our hearts – peace and love –
F**k me. I meant make that concert #5. I grabbed a brownie from the wrong stack this morning!
Make that concert #4
Hey,hey! Jorma’s Quarantine Concert #4 made New York Times list of top 10 pandemic livestream concerts! It’s right there in print, folks! Get the latest edition, hot off the presses!
‘Ol Red said it best: “I miss my friend”.
Just think if Jorma didn’t take up guitar so well as he did he’d be up in that room tuning in the best rock on the radio like the rest of us…He might have become the tattoo-ed man at the circus…