[Cover photo credit to Jay Blakesberg]
Mercury Studios will be releasing a special three-CD boxed set of Hot Tuna in-concert from the ‘90’s on July 7th, 2023. The recordings are complete with full acoustic band and no drums, performed at The Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California two nights in a row, and at Stove’s in Yokohama, Japan. Originally released by Relix in the ‘90s, then reissued/remastered with bonus tracks by Eagle Records in 2004, the box will bring all three shows together for the first time in one package, complete with poster.
Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist/Author Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady have been performing as Hot Tuna since 1969 when they were both in San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane. When the Airplane morphed into Jeffferson Starship, the pair went on as a duo and as a collective with a rotating cast to concentrate on their Blues, Folk, Country, early pop, and jams. Special guests included Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and folksinger Happy Traum.
On this collection, of special note is a rare version of Jefferson Airplane’s 1966 “Embryonic Journey” performed acoustically with no drums.
Live At Sweetwater’s CD 1
January 27, 1992
Jorma Kaukonen, vocals, guitar, dobro, pedal steel
Jack Casady, bass
Michael Falzarano, vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica
Guests include Bob Weir, guitar, vocals; Pete Sears, keyboards; Wavy Gravy and Maria Muldaur, vocals.
1) Whinin’ Boy Blues
2) Great Change
3) Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
4) I Know You Rider
5) Embryonic Journey
6) Trouble In Mind
7) Bank Robber
8) I See The Light
9) I’ll Be There For You
10) True Religion
11) I Belong To The Band
12) Maggie’s Farm
13) That’s All Right Mama
14) Been So Long
15) Genesis
16) Ice Age
17) Praise The Lord And Pass The Snakes
Live At Sweetwater’s CD 2
January 28, 1992
Same instrumentation with Happy Traum replacing Wavy Gravy, plus the additions of Bobaloo (bass) and Keith Corssan (sax).
1) Hesitation Blues
2) Dime For Beer
3) Trial By Fire
4) Death Don’t Have No Mercy
5) 99 Year Blues
6) San Francisco Bay Blues
7) Too Many Years
8) Blue Moon Of Kentucky
9) Ain’t Got No Home
10) Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
11) Walkin’ Blues
12) Third Week In The Chelsea
13) My AK-47
14) Parchman Farm
15) Folsom Prison Blues
Live In Japan CD 3
January 1997
Stove’s
Yokohama, Japan
Jorma Kaukonen, vocals, guitar
Jack Casady, bass
Michael Falzarano, guitar
Pete Sears, keyboards
Harvey Sorgen, drums
1) Walkin’ Blues
2) Parchman Farm
3) True Religion
4) Been So Long
5) Uncle Sam Blues
6) Vampire Woman
7) Follow The Drinking Gourd
8) Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning
9) Let Us Get Together
10) Third Week In The Chelsea
11) 99 Year Blues
12) Ice Age
13) San Francisco Bay Blues
14) Folsom Prison Blues
15) Mann’s Fate ###
