Concerts are becoming harder to find. Tickets are more expensive, the audience is more fickle, and the music industry never seems to know what combination of artists will draw a crowd. Luckily, that doesn't apply to road warriors , who keep on touring the smaller venues like New London's Garde Art Center. As the MC pointed out just before ushering Hot Tuna onstage on February 12, there were a grand total of 1100 people in the audience, which was, as he put it, pretty good for downtown New London. I can't vouch for the other 1099 in the audience, but the chance to see Jorma Kaukonen, the original lead guitarist for the Jefferson Airplane, Airplane bass player Jack Casady, blues harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite and country/bluegrass giant Jim Lauderdale made it a command performance.
Hot Tuna opened up with the acoustic trio of Kaukonen, Casady and Barry Mittendorf on mandolin, warming up the crowd with traditional blues tunes like "Know You Ryder", "Wining Boy Blues" and "Hesitation Blues", Jorma pointing out that he and Jack Casady had been playing together for 53 years. Musselwhite, who was born in the Delta, raised in Memphis and graduated with sold blues harp credentials after sitting in with artists like Muddy Waters and Little Walter in the Chicago blues clubs, joined the trio for "Sad and Beautiful World" and " Where Highway 61 Runs", two of the cuts from his latest CD, "The Well" ,on Alligator Records. He was followed by top Nashville performer and songwriter Jim Lauderdale, who closed out the set with his ironic country flavored tunes.
The second set was electric , Jorma, Jack and Barry joined by guitarist C.E. Smith, trading solos on Hot Tuna blues standards like "Rock Me Baby", "I Wish You Would" and "Hot Jelly Roll Blues ". I was overwhelmed by the "wall" of music, the musicians flawlessly riffing off each other, one memorable lead after another. The conversion from acoustic to rock was the most dramatic on "Candy Man" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy",both adapted from the racuous but powerful streetcorner performances of intinerant South Carolina bluesman/preacher Reverend Gary Davis. Musselwhite's return onstage featured one of his most unique tunes, the instrumental " Christo Redemptor", the haunting sound of his blues harp demonstrating not only Musselwhite's ability to master the instrument but also his willingness to take chances.
After the show, as I waited in line with my friend Sue (a longtime Hot Tuna fan) to have Charlie Musselwhite autograph a copy of "The Well", I realized that the "fusion" of musical titans like Tuna, Musselwhite and Lauderdale was the only way to guarantee continuing "road" revenue, playing the smaller but appreciative venues mostly attended by baby boomers. After all, arena rock sounds hollow and hyped compared to over two hours of carefully constructed tunes from the music industry's living legends.
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