Originally formed by
Jefferson Airplane members
Jorma Kaukonen and
Jack Casady in 1969 as a side project,
Hot Tuna ended up outlasting its parent group by a country mile, logging up a four decade (and counting) run that has included some two dozen albums and over ten thousand live performances, making
Tuna the reigning godfather of jam bands. Originally designed as an acoustic duo that would allow
Kaukonen and
Casady to explore their love of folk, blues and jazz,
Hot Tuna grew loud, rocky and electric for a time and then shrank back down to the acoustic format again, never straying too far from the country blues, which means they sounded more like
the Grateful Dead on most nights than any version of
Jefferson Airplane. This anthology of
Hot Tuna's RCA years covers 1970 to 1978;
Keep on Truckin': The Very Best of Hot Tuna includes tracks from the albums
Hot Tuna (1970),
First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971),
Burgers (1972),
The Phosphorescent Rat (1973),
America's Choice (1975),
Hoppkorv (1976) and the live
Double Dose (1978). Although there are several
Kaukonen originals collected here, the strongest tracks are blues covers, including versions of
Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues,"
Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied," and a delightfully goofy and ramshackle take on
Rev. Gary Davis' "Candy Man." Always more effective as a live act than as a studio one, the final two cuts, a rendition of
Davis' arrangement of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and a
Kaukonen original, "Killing Time in the Crystal City," both drawn from the live
Double Dose album, show
Hot Tuna at its best. It's hard to argue with the group's longevity, but when you're talking about a band that is known for doing shows that can last up to six hours, it's difficult to bottle it all into a 75-minute CD. As a single-disc sampler, though, this will get you started until you can score a ticket to one of
Hot Tuna's live shows, which is where their real legacy can be found. ~ Steve Leggett