Sunday, April 21, 2013

Hot Tuna : Trimmed And Burning 2007

Best Of Grunt: Trimmed And Burning album by Hot Tuna was released Dec 11, 2007 on the Acadia label.
From their days playing together as teenagers to their current acoustic and electric blues, probably no one has more consistently led American music for the last 50 years than Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, the founders and continuing core members of the iconic blues-roots band Hot Tuna.

While there are a number of average anthologies of classic Hot Tuna recordings, Best of Grunt: Trimmed and Burning is arguably the most diverse single disc to have been culled from their "classic" late-'60s and '70s back catalog.

With a running time of nearly 80 minutes, it is likewise one of the lengthiest as well. Keen-eyed enthusiasts might also note that song for song it matches the 1995 Edsel Records release Trimmed and Burning. One glaring omission is the dearth of any representation from their self-titled live acoustic debut, Hot Tuna (1969).

Instead, the opening pair of tracks -- a high-octane cover of Rev. Gary Davis' "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and the Jorma Kaukonen (guitar/vocals) original "Been So Long" -- come from the electric First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971).

The band's first studio effort, Burgers (1972), is the source for the instrumentals "Water Song" and the edgy midtempo rocker "Sunny Day Strut." More seasoned enthusiasts will undoubtedly be impressed with the clever inclusions from The Phosphorescent Rat (1973) and America's Choice (1975), with the deeper cuts "Soliloquy for 2," "Corners Without Exits," and "In the Kingdom" from the former, plus "Hit Single #1," "Sleep Song," and the too rarely anthologized "Serpent of Dreams" from the latter.

Similarly, the Yellow Fever (1975) track "Bar Room Crystal Ball" is a welcome addition. It helps offset one of the weaker links, the unnecessary remake of Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied" from Hoppkorv (1976).

Wrapping up Best of Grunt: Trimmed and Burning are two excellent "unplugged" tunes from Double Dose

Digitally remastered and repackaged compilation featuring recordings from their classic Grunt/RCA years, previously released as Trimmed And Burning. Hot Tuna were (and are) Jack Cassady and Jorma Kaukonen, bass player and guitarist from San Francisco's Jefferson Airplane. 
Featured on this compilation is a reworking of the Airplane track 'Embryonic Journey, currently being used in a TV ad in the UK for Norwich Union. Acadia. 2007.



Personnel
(1978) in the form of the simple and lovely take of Kaukonen's Jefferson Airplane era instrumental timepiece"Embryonic Journey" and the bluesy "Killing Time in the Crystal City" - a number that would not surface again until Kaukonen's solo Too Hot to Handle (1985) several years later. ~ Lindsay Planer




Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, guitar)
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (born December 23, 1940) is an American  Blues  and  Rock guitarist best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna
Papa John Creach (violin)
Nick Buck (synthesizer)
Bob Steeler, Sammy Piazza (drums).

Liner Note Author: Alan Robinson 



TRAXS

    1.Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning        
    2.Been So Long        
    3.Sunny Day Strut        
    4.Water Song        
    5.Soliloquy For 2       
    6.Corners Without Exits         
    7.In The Kingdom            
    8.Hit Single #1        
    9.Sleep Song
    10.Serpent Of Dreams    
    11.Bar Room Crystal Ball
    12.I Can't Be Satisfied
    13.Watch the North Wind Rise
    14.Song From the Stainless Cymbal
    15.Embryonic Journey
    16.Killing Time In The Crystal City


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