Hot Tuna icons Jorma Kaukonen of finger-picking guitar fame and Jack Casady, guru of bass guitar, join forces with harmonica wizard Charlie Musselwhite, and Grammy-winning bluegrass guitarist/composer Jim Lauderdale. Musselwhite will perform songs from his latest CD, “The Well,” nominated for five 2011 Blues Music Awards, and all team up to shake the rafters of GMU’s Center for the Arts in a family-friendly evening of Hot Tuna Blues. When teenagers Casady and Kaukonen began playing together in Washington during the early 1960s, Casady was already a seasoned local performer. Starting in junior high, he would sneak out at night to the clubs to hear a potpourri of styles, sitting in with the professionals once they discovered his talent. While Kaukonen was in college, Casady perfected his skills.
| On stage |
| Hot Tuna Blues |
| Where: George Mason University Center for the Arts |
| When: 8 p.m. Feb. 19 |
| Info: $22-$44 at 888-945-2468 or cfa.gmu.edu. |
| Free discussion begins 45 minutes before performance on the center’s Grand Tier III. |
By the time they reunited in San Francisco in 1965 as members of Jefferson Airplane, Casady had switched to electric bass and Kaukonen had developed the guitar style that sets him apart. The duo founded Hot Tuna by 1970 and began the ride to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along a road paved with blues, jazz, bluegrass and folk.
“Looking back, I’m amazed that my parents allowed a 12-year-old to stay out late visiting local clubs and later on going to school the next day after playing most of the night, but they knew I had a passion for music,” Casady said. “My father, Dr. William Casady, was a dentist in Washington. That was most of what I knew about him, but when I was looking around the attic and found a guitar and four-string banjo with one broken string, I learned that he had played them while going to school in the 20s.
“I began teaching myself to play the guitar. It disappeared before Christmas of 1956, but I discovered a note on the tree saying it entitled me to 12 private guitar lessons. Years later, after my parents died, I found among their possessions a Life magazine with me on the cover. The label was addressed to my father’s waiting room. They were proud of me.”
Today Hot Tuna is represented by the original duo along with Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin and Skoota Warner on drums.
The Hot Tuna friendship that began in Washington 50 years ago has soared through side trips to Bob Dylan’s folk circuit, band personnel changes, collaborations with major artists, more than two dozen recordings and workshops where they share their expertise with musicians at all levels.
