Grateful Dead Music Forum

sounds like a great idea ! tuna deserves the same kind of devotion as the dead
who knows ? maybe you and your friends can become the DSO of tuna tribute bands

Jorma and Jack are gonna get a kick out of this thread.

I was a total Jorma acoustic freak when I 1st got into guitar; I even love his voice. Too Hot to Handle is one of my favorite albums; but its not most folks idea of party music. Of course I would play it enthusiastically at parties, right after Flashlight and Low End Theory. Jorma/Jack had a loyal following, mostly folks who really appreciate musicianship I presume though.

I recall 2 things:
First) A line from the movie with Kirk Douglas about a trumpet player--he starts envisioning big plans to record and make it big one night, and the older musician responds, 'who do you think buys records?...13 year old girls who only buy the records to learn the words of the songs....those folks don't care about a trumpet player no matter how good he is. LOL

Second) A friend of mine went to Choate prep school. I was raving about Hot Tuna one night and he said, "those guys just played at our school". He said of the folks that actually showed up, few remained for the entire show. Granted this was years ago and probably a trough in their popularity, but still.

Its good music and played right it takes some chops that a percentage of any audience will appreciate and be enthusiastic about it. Like any niche music getting word out to the right people is the key I guess. It seems like the very best stuff, or more precisely the authentic, is just over the heads of the general public in any area of life. My idealism wants to say the original question is irrelevant...we have an obligation as musicians to turn people on to good stuff. Bar owners and promoters have a different view of obligation though

Jorma's reply to Hot Tuna Tribute Bands? "Who knew?"
Jack's was "Lordy, Lordy, Lordy!"

Some more videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ApOeIv1D38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBMqXT-eGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWgmcoc39M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNhJvbz2AeY

Very nice!

I know also know LeGuyader from years past. We've jammed together at times on Dead and he also discussed back then with me the Hot Tuna band idea but nothing came of it then. Which is for the best, you're a far better Rev. Gary Davis fingerstyle player than I!

For a while, another bassist friend of mine and I played around with an acoustic Airplane/Hot Tuna band we'd tentatively named Jefferson Tuna. We actually worked up a couple of sets but neither of us were serious about it and so it just sorta fizzled out.

A high school guitarist friend of mine put together a band in southern FL called Not Tuna. They gigged it regularly until he died a couple of years ago.

I'm with Ben - if you tell me when and where you're gigging, I'll come! Just don't use Facebook only (I'm not and will never be on it).

Just caught them in Ithaca last month. Good as usual, it was just the two of them this time. Jack had this huge acoustic bass- almost Mariachi size. Didn't quite sound like him (with his usual Epiphone), it was less edgie- almost got lost in the mix at times. And when you get lost in the mix of you and one other guy... that's just not right.

Jon S. wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 5:51 am Very nice!

I know also know LeGuyader from years past. We've jammed together at times on Dead and he also discussed back then with me the Hot Tuna band idea but nothing came of it then. Which is for the best, you're a far better Rev. Gary Davis fingerstyle player than I!

For a while, another bassist friend of mine and I played around with an acoustic Airplane/Hot Tuna band we'd tentatively named Jefferson Tuna. We actually worked up a couple of sets but neither of us were serious about it and so it just sorta fizzled out.

A high school guitarist friend of mine put together a band in southern FL called Not Tuna. They gigged it regularly until he died a couple of years ago.

I'm with Ben - if you tell me when and where you're gigging, I'll come! Just don't use Facebook only (I'm not and will never be on it).

Thanks--wanted to post some upcoming dates in the Northern Virginia area:

Fri., Feb. 22 at Falls Church Distillers, 8-11 p.m.: https://www.fcdistillers.com/
Sat., May 11 at Slater Run Vineyards, 1-4 p.m.: https://www.slaterrun.com/
Sat., June 1 at Magnolia Vineyards, 2-5 p.m.: http://magnoliavineyards.com/the-winery
Sat., June 9 at Slater Run Vineyards, 1-4 p.m.
Sun., June 16 at Chateau O'Brien, 1-4 p.m.: http://chateauobrien.com/
Sun., July 21 at Slater Run, 1-4 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 3 at Slater Run, 1-4 p.m.
Sat., Sep. 14 at Slater Run, 1-4 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 12 at Slater Run, 1-4 p.m.

And here's a Facebook link just in case: https://www.facebook.com/pg/BurgersBlues/posts/

Will update with any new dates.

Two new videos, Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning and I Know You Rider:

https://youtu.be/KGxaT3CO_ec
https://youtu.be/hwLKhhL2d_w