Hot Tuna

Performer: Hot Tuna
Engineer: Alan Zentz
Producer: Al Schmitt
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Hot Tuna: Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, acoustic guitar); Jack Casady (bass). Additional personnel: Will Scarlett (harmonica). Recorded live at the New Orleans House, Berkeley, California on September 16, 1969. Includes liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Hot Tuna: Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, acoustic guitar); Jack Casady (bass instrument). Additional personnel: William Scarlett (harmonica). It is only fitting that Hot Tuna's self-titled 1969 debut (also known as RECORDED LIVE) would be an in-concert, all-acoustic set. The band would make themselves one of rock & roll's top road dogs during their lengthy career, and would return to acoustic work time and time again. Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen (guitar/vocals) and Jack Casady (bass) launched this side project to co-exist with their full-time job with the band, while musically getting back to their folk/acoustic roots. The CD reissue adds five songs to the original track listing, rounding out such highlights as "Hesitation Blues" (which would become a stage staple for Tuna), Reverend Gary Davis's "Death Don't Have No Mercy," and "Winin' Boy Blues." There is a great sense of ease and rapport between Kaukonen and Casady, and though the sound is quite minimal--the duo plays alone save some harmonica work from Will Scarlett--HOT TUNA remains one of the band's most satisfying releases.

Rolling Stone (7/9/70, p.44) - "...Acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals, and, here and there, a little harp....It is a relaxing album, one to sip wine and sit on the back porch by..." Goldmine - "Very good performance and sound"

Hot Tuna began in 1970 as a side project of Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, who wanted to put aside psychedelia to explore their blues roots. Their format has frequently changed over the years (shifting back and forth from acoustic to electric), as has their personnel (the version of the band featuring fiddler Papa John Creach is beloved to fans), but their blues-rock sound remains consistent.

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