---

Hot Tuna

Live at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta – April 17, 2016

---

By Don Aters • Photos by Chuck Holloway

During the embryonic days of storied San Francisco and psychedelia, Jefferson Airplane would be the pinnacle of the neoteric genre labeled as “Music for the mind”. The tenure in the band would reign from 1966-1972, but the footsteps of Hot Tuna were already sifting sand in the hourglass of musical time. Jorma Kaukonen and John William Casady would forever be etched into the minds of an entire generation who continue to cling to the music that defined all of us and songs that transcend from generation to generation. They were of like minds, often castigated for their irreverence about tours and management who could not perceive the thought of band control from within the structure that would become Grunt Records and 2400 Fulton Street, a self-governed impact band of The Golden Age.

They remain the same in 2016, verified by their the appearance in Atlanta a few days ago. After all these years, J&J are a firmament that are still the road warriors of a storied place and time. The “hedonism” of long ago “city by the bay” has given to a more docile and humanistic approach to their fans and peers. The dearth and demise of others of the era has seen Hot Tuna evolve the doyens of 2016 and beyond and we, the minions that continue to follow then down The Golden Road of music for the masses. With the demise of Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson, these shows are now a requiem that continues to instill the ideology of The Counter Culture / Woodstock Nation, “Peace through the music that matters”. The fervor of hallowed halls such as The Fillmore Auditorium, The Fillmore East & West, Winterland and others exudes on a nightly basis and as long as they continue to tour, we will continue to follow…….as it should be……