Hot Tuna (album)

Hot Tuna
Live album by Hot Tuna
Released	May 1970
Recorded	September 16 to 24, 1969 New Orleans House, Berkeley
Genre	Acoustic blues
Length	45:59 67:51 (reissue)
Label	RCA Victor
Producer	Al Schmitt
Hot Tuna chronology
Hot Tuna (1970) First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971)First Pull Up, Then Pull Down1971

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	B+
Rolling Stone	(not rated)

Hot Tuna is the self-titled debut album by the blues-rock band Hot Tuna, released in 1970 as RCA Victor LSP-4353. It was recorded live at the New Orleans House in Berkeley, California in September 1969. It peaked at #30 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Context and content

Hot Tuna began as a means of relaxation for its two principals Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady while on tour with Jefferson Airplane, eventually becoming a separate entity within that band to the point of performing as its opening act. In the beginning, Hot Tuna would play in the style of electric Chicago blues often augmented by Airplane members, such represented by a cover of B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" on the live Airplane album Bless Its Pointed Little Head. For their first album, Kaukonen and Casady decided rather on an all-acoustic set, playing the country blues of the pre-World War II era.

The Reverend Gary Davis had been an early influence on Kaukonen, and two of his songs were included on the album, with an additional pair included on the 1996 reissue. Casady and Kaukonen demonstrated their familiarity with early jazz and ragtime as well as blues by the inclusion of "Hesitation Blues," recorded by the Victor Military Band in 1916, and the inclusion of two numbers attributed to Jelly Roll Morton. They also ignored any purist notions of the delta blues with their cover of "How Long Blues" by Leroy Carr, who not only was not from the Mississippi Delta and did not play guitar, but was also one of the commercial urban blues successes of the 1930s.

In 1996, RCA reissued the album on compact disc with five bonus tracks recorded at the same time. The box set Hot Tuna in a Can included this version along with remasters of the band's subsequent four albums First Pull Up Then Pull Down, Burgers, America's Choice and Hoppkorv. The box set is also out of print.

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Hesitation Blues"	traditional, arranged by Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady	5:05
2.	"How Long Blues"	Leroy Carr	3:24
3.	"Uncle Sam Blues"	traditional, arranged by Kaukonen, Casady	5:04
4.	"Don't You Leave Me Here"	Jelly Roll Morton	2:50
5.	"Death Don't Have No Mercy"	Rev. Gary Davis	6:10

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Know You Rider"	traditional, arranged by Kaukonen, Casady	3:59
2.	"Oh Lord, Search My Heart"	Davis	3:47
3.	"Winin' Boy Blues"	Morton	5:25
4.	"New Song (for the Morning)"	Kaukonen	4:55
5.	"Mann's Fate" (instrumental)	Kaukonen	5:20

1996 reissue bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning"	Davis	3:48
12.	"Candy Man"	Davis	3:35
13.	"True Religion"	Kaukonen	5:23
14.	"Belly Shadow" (instrumental)	Kaukonen	2:59
15.	"Come Back Baby"	Walter Davis	6:07

Personnel

• Jorma Kaukonen – acoustic guitar, vocals
• Jack Casady – bass guitar
• Will Scarlett – harmonica

Production

• Al Schmitt – producer
• Allen Zentz – engineer
• Pat Ieraci – master of the machines
• Margareta Kaukonen – painting
• Mike Frankel – photography
• Gut – art direction

References

• Hot Tuna Bio, Dead.net
• Nager, Larry. "Kaukonen's Music Flowed from Yellow Springs", The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 30, 2000
• Starostin, George. Review of Hot Tuna, The Tower of Babel

External links

• Official Hot Tuna web site