Sunday, August 21, 2011

Hot Tuna "Steady As She Goes"


That's correct, a NEW album.  First one in more than twenty years.  Jorma Kaukonen is seventy years-old and Jack Casady is sixty-seven.  And they're still touring.  Well, at least Jorma is, as Jack has done all he wants to do for now, playing only a few choice dates in the future.  I had my chance to see them here August 4, but I ended up working instead.  When I went to my Facebook page late that night, I found a message from an hour before the show saying I had been added to the guest list.  Well, damn...

I was never a big Jefferson Airplane fan, and only got into Hot Tuna as a freshman in college, on the tail-end of their run in the 1970's.  Picked up Jorma's solo record releases through my college days and maybe one or two during my Sound Shop/Music 4 Less years.  The man has a tremendous guitar technique and a voice unique.  But again, I was never one of the faithful fans.

Which is probably why I enjoyed "Steady...".  For the card-carrying fan-clubbers and their high expectations, this album has been a letdown.  Come on, people, the guys are +/- 70 freaking years old!  Of course it's a laid back release!  Here's Jorma at his famed Fur Peace Ranch doing one of the songs from "Steady..."



No more thunderous bass lines from Casady, but plenty of clean pickin' from Kaukonen, and that distinctive voice.  There's also the obligatory female harmony vocalist, just like the days of yore.  The songs aren't legendary or mind-blowing, but they are good.  My favorite, but the one the devoted following seem to hate the most, is track 11 of the contained 12, "If This Is Love (I Want My Money Back)".  I found myself singing along by the end of my first listen.  It's the best song John Hiatt never wrote.  The closing track is one of those patented instrumentals that livened up many of the earlier recordings, finger-pickin' goodness. 

 I will add this record to my collection, but I doubt it will be one I'll reach for again anytime soon.  If I do, odds are it will be to fool a Hiatt fan. 

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