I’ve never been into Jefferson Airplane or Hot Tuna, so the first time guitarist Jorma Kaukonen got my attention was on the historic collection of early Janis Joplin recordings that he was featured on. Now, I just heard this recoding of a 2003 gig at The Bottom l ine with Barry Mitterhoff/g-banj-mand and Cindy Cashdollar/stg, and am thinking “How did I miss this guy when I was in my Kottke-Grossman-Baker-Fahey stage of music?”. This guys got a classy and clean sound on his acoustic guitar, a perfect sense of the rural and folk blues and sings like he’s lived on the road. This two disc set is a sublime mix of traditional, blues, and originals, and is going to stay on my playlist for awhile. WHEW!
There’s a down home feel on the picking and grinning of “Blue Railroad Train” and bluegrassy “Just Because” while Cashdollar slides home safely on the fun “Prohibition Blues” and “Uncle Sam Blues”. Kaukonen is avuncular and raspy for “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” and picks while grinning on the jam with Mitterhoff on “Good Shepherd”. Unpretentious and timeless as a pair of well faded Wrangler jeans.