Hot Tuna is celebrating 50 years of making music!
"Hot Tuna is a Psychedelic-Blues Institution” – Rolling Stone Magazine
Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, perform with a well-honed and solid power – always in the groove from years of experience and mutual inspiration. Started as a side project during their Jefferson Airplane days, the constant, the very definition of Hot Tuna, has always been Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. The two boyhood pals have never wavered in one of the most enduring friendships in Rock history.
From their days playing together as teenagers in the Washington, DC area, through years of inventive psychedelic rock in San Francisco (1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees), to their current acoustic and electric blues sound, no one has more consistently led American music for the last 50 years than Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, the founders and continuing core members of Hot Tuna. At the 2016 Grammys, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
“Jorma Kaukonen is a force in American music, equally adept at fingerpicked acoustic folk and blues as he is at wailing on an electric.” – Acoustic Guitar
Guitarist and vocalist, Jorma Kaukonen is a highly respected interpreter of roots music, blues, Americana, and popular rock-and-roll. Jorma’s repertoire goes far beyond psychedelic rock; he is a music legend and one of the finest singer-songwriters in music. Jorma tours the world bringing his unique styling to old blues while writing new songs of weight and dimension.
Jorma’s memoirs, Been So Long: My Life and Music was published on August 2018. It is receiving critically acclaim across the country! If you have a media outlet that would review a book please let me know their address and I will have one sent out.
“Been So Long is a survivor’s tale, well told and sprinkled with a bit of 1960s fairy dust.” —Wall Street Journal
"Jefferson Airplane guitarist Kaukonen’s candid and affectionate memoir resembles the rambling and free-flowing road trips he enjoys.... A mesmerizing storyteller, Kaukonen delivers a memoir as intricate and dazzling as his music." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
”This is his searingly honest story, a tale of extraordinary success, excess and addictions” —Iain Patience, Blues Matters
“It's not only exciting, it's deeply honest, and it's full of experiences and thoughts ... amazing and timeless!"
—Uli Twelker, GoodTimes
“Jorma Kaukonen's Been So Long: My Life and Music stands apart.... an incredibly insightful look inside the life of a musician who was not only influenced by some of America’s greatest music but who also left an indelible mark on that very same musical landscape." –AXS
“It is thoughtful, insightful and downright fun.” —Jesse Finkelstein, Blues Radio International
“Jack Casady is virtually unparalleled–and yet he has one of the most truly unique electric-bass voices in rock...he can melt into a supportive role but when opportunity knocks, he bursts forth with creative lines–both simple and ornate–that are unlike any you’ve heard” – Premier Guitar
One of the most unique innovators in the sixty-year history of the bass guitar, Jack Casady made his sweeping melodic mark helping to create the “San Francisco Sound” with legendary rock group Jefferson Airplane. Jack went on to track with Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Warren Zevon, members of the Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, and Gov’t Mule. Casady, regarded as one of rock's greatest bassists, is certainly one of its most original.
“For a band that traces its roots back to 1969, Hot Tuna can still bring the heat. Not only did they tackle songs from their wide catalog and long career, but they also showed the audience that they still have fun doing it. Jack Casady stomped around the stage totting a bass that is about the same size as him while Jorma Kaukonen lit a fuse and transformed his guitar into a firework.” – Live For Live Music