I went to see Jorma Kaukonen play a two-hour set at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis last night. He is now 85 years old. He looks his age and he shuffles somewhat awkwardly when he walks, but his playing is still fluid and beautiful.
Jorma has had a long, varied, and storied career in music deep in the American grain. He tells his story in the 2018 memoir Been So Long: My Life and Music. Although I only saw him perform live for the first time in 2009, I have been a fan for more than 50 years and have seen him seven or eight times since then, usually with his old friend and former Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna partner Jack Casady on bass. Smart and funny, Jorma is an encyclopedia of traditional American music as well as an engaging performer and songwriter.
He is touring in support of Wabash Avenue — a recently discovered collection of his live recordings from 1965 that his wife found in storage. He reviewed his career in a long interview with Guitar World’s Paul Riario when Wabash Avenue was released this past November. I thought some readers might want to hear him discussing his career and his playing.
Last night Jorma played several songs I’d never heard him play live before. One of them was “Good Shepherd,” a song that landed on the second track of the Jefferson Airplane album Volunteers in 1969. Jorma arranged the cover of “Good Shepherd” on Volunteers. The 1965 tape is closer to what it sounded like last night.
In his memoir he recalls learning it backstage from a pair of folksingers in 1963. “I had never heard anything so cool and in a most profound way, this moment of musical synchronicity would change my life!” He didn’t know where it came from. “I just wanted to play it and that’s what I did.”
In the book’s Appendix of Lyrics he explains: “This is an old-time spiritual/rock song. It was collected from the aging blind blues player Jimmie Strothers as ‘The Blood-Strained Banders,’ by Alan Lomax and Harold Spivacke on behalf of the Library of Congress in 1936.”
As I say, I’ve seen Jorma play live shows several times since 2009. Never once have I heard him utter a political word. He is all about the music. As you might infer from his comments on “The Good Shepherd,” he is a music nut.
Jorma’s friend John Hurlbut joined him onstage toward the end of last night’s show. Hurlbut sang and played rhythm while Jorma played lead on a few songs including “Ballad of Easy Rider” and “North Country Blues.” At one point Hurlbut alluded to the local “resistance” to ICE during Metro Surge. Hurlubut commented, “Respect.”
It was a jarring disappointment that seems to have become obligatory for artists passing through the Dakota. However, the packed house that assembled to hear Jorma last night came from the oxygen tank and walker demographic. We looked like a crowd on a field trip from the nursing home. Hurlbut’s “respect” was misdirected. We weren’t out harassing law enforcement during Metro Surge.
Hurlbut’s interjection made me want to restate my “respect” for Jorma. My notes reflect that the old Hot Tuna number “Come Back Baby” was the sixth song he performed last night and it expressed my own attitude toward him. I hope to see him again some time soon down the road minus Hurlbut.
