Photo by Vanessa Kaukonen
The next stop was at the Opera House in Mineral Point, Wisconsin
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
This was an aspect of Wisconsin I was previously unaware of. I was introduced to a lovely little town not on the Interstate. Most cool.
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen 7, 2022
Mineral Point Opera House
Mineral Point Wisconsin
Saturday, March 5, 2022
First Set:
- Dime For Beer
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
- New Song For the Morning
- Barbeque King
- Waiting For A Train
- Been So Long
- How Long Blues
- Full Go Round
- In The Kingdom
- Sea Child
- Trial By Fire
- Death Don’t Have No Mercy
- That’ll Never Happen No More
Second Set:
- Too Many Years
- Letter To The North Star
- Come Back Baby
- Hesitation Blues
- Roads and Roads &
- Trouble In Mind
- I Am The Light Of This World
- Great Divide Revisited
- Sleep Song
- Good Shepherd
- Genesis
- Ode To Billy Dean
- Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
- Encore: Water Song
Photo by Phil Jacobs
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
What a treat… another cool venue I had never visited before!
Then to the Old Town School Of Folk Music
Photo by Phil Jacobs
When I was at Antioch College in 1959, the OTSOFM was a sacred destination. It was a prior iteration to this edifice of course, but even so, I couldn’t afford to go to Chicago so in a way this is a dream come true!
Photo by Phil Jacobs
Jorma Kaukonen 8, 2022
Old Town School Of Folk Music
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday. March 6, 2022
First Set:
- True Religion
- How Long Blues
- Ain’t In No Hurry
- Broken Highway
- Letter To The North Star
- Death Don’t Have No Mercy
- Been So Long
- Barbeque King
- Flying Clouds
- Trial By Fire
- Whining Boy Blues
- Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
Second Set:
- Trouble In Mind
- Dime For Beer
- Ode To Billy Dean
- Waiting For A Train
- Hesitation Blues
- Come Back Baby
- Living In The Moment
- Sleep Song
- Good Shepherd
- Great Divide Revisited
- Take Your Time
- San Francisco Bay Blues
- Encore: Bar Room Crystal Ball
The sound was impeccable and the audience, as always here, awesome! This gig never lets me down!
Back at the hotel…
Photo by Phil Jacobs
Getting up to drive home on Sunday, it was like this…
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
Fueling up on the way home, diesel was through the roof… but that’s going to have to be OK. We’re in the midst of an undeclared war here… one we dare not lose!
At home, all was well with the world with a real home cooked meal.
Photo by Jorma Kaukonen
At the end of the road, home is waiting and there’s no place like home!
Thank you, Queequeg. That’s it! I knew I could count on someone here to bail me out.
Mary Flower may be the lady you speak of on an album called Ragtime Gal
https://youtu.be/HhZYXSG-lYQ
SIRIUSXM has a playlist here is the link to the playlist
BB King’s Bluesville Recently Played and Playlist – xmplaylist
Heard a mighty fine version of Keep Your Lamps on Bluesville last night. It was a woman playing an acoustic slide and singing solo. I looked at her name, but didn’t write it down and have since slept, so whoop, there it is. Probably never hear it again. Couldn’t find it on the google. Shore wuz purty, though.
@ Rich L
I can relate Rich. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the exhilarating show at OTSFM. It was a great night. The crowd was extremely enthusiastic…it had been so long since your last visit. The applauses were robust, not perfunctory.
Starting off with True Religion..hallelu…”what with it being Sunday.” That made me smile. Looks like you forgot to put down Too Many Years on your set list. I think it was the 3rd or 4th song. “Well I opened the door and found I was looking at danger…”, perhaps one of your greatest verses. So personal, yet so universal. We’ve all been there, no? That song almost makes me want to love my ex again.
A quick story; after our divorce my wife moved the the state of Washington, lol, she really wanted to getaway from me! We had this big pine tree in the front yard that I would climb up the middle every winter, stringing the circuit blowing C9 bulbs. Did it for about 25 years.
One day, a micro burst toppled the 40 foot tree to the ground. I took a picture and was going to send to Nathalie the next day, but didn’t like the pic and decided I’d take a better one in the morning. Enter my friend Jeff. He saw the fallen tree, (branches lying in the winter snow), and posted a picture on face book.
That night, I got a text from Nathalie that read, “Thanks for telling me about the tree. I guess that’s why our marriage didn’t work.” I thought about it and texted back saying, “There’s a lot of reasons marriages don’t work out,” explaining that I had intended on sendingthe picture in the morning. Then I told her how sad I was that this fixture in our life was now toppled. I said it reminded me of so many great Christmases and times we had over the too many years.
Her next reply brought a bit of joy to my fragile heart: “Now you’re making me cry.” It was a moment we both literally lived out one of your favorite songs of mine, Too Many Years.
Also, looks like you left Highway Song off the second set. Picking out a favorite song of yours is a bit like trying to pick out a favorite Bible verse…it’s impossible. To me, Highway Song is one of the most perfect songs ever recorded. Every instrument and voice was perfect, so incredibly clear. I remember when you and Jack dusted it off in one of the Quarantine Concerts. Fuck and yes! When you explained Sunday that at your birthday party Theresa took David Crosby’s part and Larry filled in for Papa John…all I can say is how do I pull up that recording?!!! I loved how you through the little riff in at the end if song that punctuated it on Burgers.
I couldn’t remember the name of Sleep Song, so I scrolled through your albums until I found it. While doing this, I kept thinking boy I wish you would have played this song and that song and this song. Literally, you could have played 27 different songs that were passed by like Flying Clouds last Sunday. Your body of work is the epitome of profundity!
Finally, Been So Long was perfect. Back in the 70’s I told my friend Jack, who also played bass, about the incredible lead that Cassidy plays – that lead that repeats four times at the end of the song. He told me that was not the bass and picked up the needle and set it back down on the record about 5 times until I heard Jack playing a few notes in the background. It was amazing watching your fingers on the fret board when you played that lead Sunday…it looks pretty complicated!! And I pretty sure Jack could play that lead on his bass!
Well, I could go on, but don’t want to exhaust my stay. I will Keep My Lamp Trimmed and Burning until your next Windy City appearance!
Loved the line “Take your time, life doesn’t always have to rhyme.” Indeed, the world has changed J-dawg. Thank goodness 40 foot trees like you still hold fort.
@eaglesteve
Thanks as always for the timely reminder, eaglesteve.
Definitely never forgotten by my brain cells he altered.
We corresponded occasionally in his later years – he was informative and ornery to the end.
Unrelated: Anyone into the Rev. might want to check out “Let Us Get Together” if you haven’t yet, a 2-CD release from last month. Two concerts, from 1967 and 1969.
Augustus Owsley Stanley III
Jan 19, 1935 – Mar 12, 2011
Never forgotten
RIP Bro
“The sun comes up
And the sun goes down
The hands on the clock
Just go round and round
I just get up
And it’s time to lay down
Life gets teejus,, don’t it. E
Jack Tatum was one badass dude in that defensive backfield
This is a short article from NYT I remember reading then. His heart rate during training!
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/10/archives/pele-a-slim-figure-of-athletic-perfection-pele-a-slim-figure-of.html#:~:text=Medical%20tests%20have%20revealed%20that,to%2095%20times%20a%20minute.
What a setlist! Bar Room Crystal Ball as an encore-really!
Chicago is a great town. It was built on the backs of immigrants and was once the cattle and grain hub of America.
First time I went there was 1n 1975 to see Hot Tuna.
We stayed at a hotel overlooking Lake Michigan on Lake Shore Drive (LSD). I’m not kidding.
Wrigley Field, like Fenway Park, is a National Shrine. Thanks for the photo!
Jorma back on the road doing what he loves with only highway ahead. “Classical Gas” man. Enjoy.
Backtracking a few weeks. The tube brought me some early 70’s NFL and I’m reminded
of John Madsen on Joe Namath’s HBO show of early 90’s. John told Joe he was the best QB he coached against. Montanna was best he saw, but Joe was best he faced. Don’t know where he ranked Stabler. Who would you pick of you had one for a season and playoff run, Jorma? I saw both on TV, but I was pretty young. Also, did you get to any games at Keasar? Thompson wrote of wild times there.
I had Raider season tickets in the glory years… the 70’s. Ghost To The Post, Fred Biletnikoff, Snake, John John Matuszak and more. John Madden was awesome of course. The only game I saw at Kezar Stadium was Pele’s last professional soccer game. Good times.
There’s nothing like cooking at home. I’ve always loved to cook, and maybe one positive thing about the pandemic is, I got to hone my skills more than I might have otherwise. Still, I want to support my restaurants and I am looking forward to doing more of that as we get more of a handle on this awful little bug.
Like wet snow on crocus, that’s what today is like.
And sheesh, recollections of your dad, loss of another dear one, and baseball nostalgia, that’s a lot on any man’s head and heart. Beautiful setlists and grand old theaters, I bet everyone in the rooms with you for these past few especially could feel that they were hearing something special.
Throw in a pandemic anniversary and the horrors of another war…yet somehow happily just this morning I remembered hearing Doc Watson more than once exclaim to the audience “ain’t life teejus sometimes.”
Welcome Home. The daffodils are coming for ya, again
“My Name in Chalk.” I literally snickered out loud. Jorma, my friend, your sense of humor and your attitude (and the fact that you write like you talk) makes me so grateful that we have crossed paths so many times. Mineral Point is a lovely little town; glad you got to play there!
So grateful you made the trip. Mineral Point was the largest settlement of Cornish folk in the US. They came to mine lead and later zinc. The Opera House was built in 1915 and must have had an interesting mix of the poor miners and the rich mine owners, who lived on top of the hill. Later it was a vaudeville stage for a variety of shows. The sound quality, for your show, was really good. The next day we got about 4-6 inches of snow. We cherish your music. Soon, the weather will warm and it’ll be Harley time. Thanks, Jorma.