Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2014

Tokyo has seen a glut of classic rock acts headed for the city’s arenas and stadiums of late (Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan etc.), so a long-awaited tour of intimate venues by legendary San Francisco band Hot Tuna should make for the perfect, understated complement.

Hot Tuna, a blues act, started in 1969 when then super hot rock band Jefferson Airplane took a break due to throat surgery for lead singer Grace Slick. Members Jorma Kaukonen (guitar) and Jack Casady (bass) wanted to keep performing together as they had done before Jefferson Airplane. (The Airplane formed in 1965 but the pair were childhood friends and had cut a single, “Magic Key” together as early as 1958.)

The Airplane was part of the San Francisco acid rock scene that epitomized the hippie era, but when the duo of Kaukonen and Casady formed Hot Tuna they struck out in a blues direction, fulfilling an early love of Kaukonen’s. “When I was younger we just played rock ‘n roll,” he told Metropolis. “I loved blues music but I didn’t have the insight to play it.”

Kaukonen’s attraction to the blues stemmed from its being the antithesis of the acid-fueled fantasies of Jefferson Airplane. “The thing that really struck us is the subject matter had to do with truth and reality,” he explains. “It could be good and could be bad; it could be happy blues or sad blues, but it was about real life. It wasn’t a saccharine Tin Pan Alley song. As a musical genre, as a type, the blues just seemed so real to us.”

Over more than four decades, Hot Tuna has become one of the most celebrated units to continuously perform blues and other styles of Americana.

“Jorma,” as he’s known to committed fans, learned his technique from blues legends like the Reverend Gary Davis and John Lee Hooker. The band, filled out by a posse of stellar sidemen, plays traditional blues tracks, but like every great act, they make them uniquely their own.

“If I’m learning or covering a song by somebody else, I try to extract that which is intrinsic to that song, whether it’s a lick or a rhythm,” Koukonen continues. “I’ve never felt it necessary to form someone else’s licks. That just wasn’t me. It’s got to be a song that speaks to you, that you can perform with the same conviction that the original artist did.”

Most Hot Tuna shows are animated by a host of blues traditionals that have now become firmly associated with the act. One can expect to hear the classic “Hesitation Blues,” which was first released in 1916.

“It’s a great song,” Kaukonen comments. “From a guitar player’s point of view, it’s a C blues but half of it’s in A minor, which is anomalous for a song from that period. In addition to the fact it’s a cool song there were things in it that concerned young guys like myself back at that time. ‘Can I get you or must I hesitate?’ There’s a lot of that thinking.  People today, they don’t think about what a big deal it was to have a girlfriend with whom you might have a sexual experience, growing up in the ’50s.”

Another track one can expect to hear at the Hot Tuna shows in Japan is “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin’.” “It’s a Rev. Gary Davis song—that’s one of the first finger picking songs I learned,” Kaukonen relates. “You know, I believe the Rev. Davis is one of the great figures of 20th century American music. It’s fatalistic but there is an upbeat feeling to the music that belies the lyrical intention of the song.”

While Koukonen was here on his own last year, this is the first time for Hot Tuna to play Japan since 1997. Koukonen is quite excited to be back to a country with which it turns out he has a rather interesting history.

“My father was a linguist and in WW2 he learned Japanese,” he relates. “He was with MacArthur’s staff and stayed at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama. He was in Japan for a long time. When we played Yokohama the last time, back in the ’90s, I stayed at the hotel, at the new wing where my dad was billeted in WW2.”

Thumbs Up Yokohama, Apr 24

Club Quattro, Shibuya, Apr 25

Tokyo Women’s Plaza Hall, May 3

Thumbs Up, Yokohama, May 4

See concert listings (popular) for details.