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The first Hot Tuna record was a live recording of a coffeehouse appearance by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Cassidy, and harmonica man Will Scarlet, performing in a straight folk-blues style. It gave Kaukonen a chance to showcase his fingerpicking chops, and was actually an important introduction to this music for thousands of youngsters who were more interested in Jefferson Airplane than in Reverend Gary Davis. For the second record, also recorded live, the group added Papa John Creach on fiddle and Sammy Piazza on drums, and Jorma plugged in. With the release of the studio record, Burgers, in 1972, the writing was on the wall, and it wasn’t long before Kaukonen and Cassidy had left Jefferson Airplane. In truth Burgers has as much to do with the original Airplane sound as with the blues covers that Hot Tuna started with: “Sea Child” would have fit quite well on Surrealistic Pillow, and five of the nine tracks are Kaukonen originals of one sort or another. From this point on, Hot Tuna was a sort of a combination of folk-rock, folk-blues, and psychedelic jam band, but perhaps because of the gradual way it spun off from Airplane, Burgers hasn’t been recognized for the turning point it really was.
By Duck Baker
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