Hot Tuna - Embryonic Journey

Bassist Jack Casady and Lead Guitar player Jorma Kaukonen left the Jefferson Airplane to form their own band in the early seventies. At the beginning they were mostly acoustic, and very bluesy. They added the elder statesmen, violinist Papa John Creach, with the addition of Texan drummer Sammy Piazza. This line-up was documented on the album First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971), recorded live at the Chateau Liberte (a nondescript club favored by the band) in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Hot Tuna also used to play free concerts whenever they could, just for the love of entertaining. I have seen them play at least 20 times and they have always done a 3 hour show or more. In fact, they were playing at Cabrillo College in the Santa Cruz, CA area, the school pulled the plug on them. So they proceeded to sit down and play acoustic for another hour.