Hot Tuna and Friends Concert Review, Oct.29, 2025, The Bardavon

Hot Tuna and various Friends played The Bardavon on Oct. 29, 2025. We were Orchestra Left, 2^nd row (the Jack side). The show opened with a fine solo set from NC native Jim Lauderdale (above).  Personally, I had not heard of Jim Lauderdale before, but about two songs in I understood exactly why he was touring with Hot Tuna. At first blush, he seemed like a “country singer” but once we started paying attention to the lyrics and the emotion he put into them, it became clear that this guy is quite the songwriter. A little research after the gig revealed that he

has written for George Strait, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Donna the Buffalo, The Dixie Chicks, Jerry Douglas, The North Mississippi Allstars, and Lucinda Williams. He played all original tunes including Patchwork River, Trashcan Tomcat, Iodine, and an audience sing along – Headed for the Hills. As it turns out, Jim Lauderdale and Robert Hunter wrote a bunch of songs together, another fact I was unaware of.  I’m something of a “Hunter Gatherer” (I sure wish I could claim that term as my own…) but Lauderdale’s contributions just hadn’t penetrated to me yet. Check out Memory, a song he co-wrote with Robert Hunter. He also played a tune that he introduced by saying he hoped that he was the first country singer to tackle the topic – Artificial Intelligence.  I can tell you that people were laughing, hard.

There was about a 10-minute break, then Jorma, Jack, harmonica player Ross Garren, and drummer Justin Guip took the stage. I’d seen Justin Guip with Hot Tuna before, but I have to plead ignorance about Ross Garren as well.  It took perhaps one song before I started to understand why he was playing with Hot Tuna.  Subsequent research about Ross Garren was quite a revelation.  If you enjoyed the harmonica playing in the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, or in Killers of the Flower Moon, well, thank Ross Garren.  Likewise the harp duties in Sinners.  Ross and Bobby Rush (The Man as far as I’m concerned) both played on that movie soundtrack.

Ross Garren in short order brought out the largest harmonica I have ever seen.  My first thought was: “It’s a Frankenharp chromatic on steroids!”  Well, it was a Suzuki bass harmonica.  Ross switched continuously between a standard-looking diatonic, the bass harmonica and some harmonica with special “overblow” capability.  I’m pretty sure he snuck in a couple moves on what looked like a small copper watering pitcher and an item that bore a strong resemblance to a soup can, sans label (below).

It rapidly became clear that both Jorma and Jack, but especially Jack, were paying very close attention to Ross Garren.  I can only apologize for not getting any clear front shots of Ross, but he was exactly facing Jorma and Jack for the whole show.

If you could look up “Bass Player” in the dictionary, I’m quite certain Jack Casady would be there.  With the advantage of quite a few years now, it is my opinion that Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen were always the true heart of JA. And just ponder what they have accomplished with Hot Tuna over the years.  It’s absolutely remarkable.  Few have cut closer to the bone than Jorma, both acoustic and electric: Embryonic Journey, Genesis, Ode to Billy Dean, Radical Sleep, Too Hot to Handle, Too Many Years, and Ice Age to name only a few.  The latter song has been speaking to me recently: “Climate of the World is getting colder.  Those who should be young are seeming older,” and “They’re much too old to care about the future.  Sewing up the past with shining sutures.” Yeah. Exactly. 

I remember a recorded Bill Graham intro to Hot Tuna, from Fillmore West as I recall.  He introduced Jack as “a devil, devil, devil of a man,” if memory serves. Though time has elapsed, I think this still holds:

If I can be allowed a small digression: This also reminds me of a unique Bill Graham-sponsored concert: The Dead with Miles Davis, also at Fillmore West.  I sure wish I could have seen that, The Dead with Miles.  Perhaps you have not read Miles’ comments on that show:

“That was an eye-opening concert for me, because there were about five thousand people there that night, mostly young, white hippies, and they hadn’t hardly heard of me, if they had heard of me at all…The place was packed with these real spacey, high white people, and when we first started playing, people were walking around and talking.  But after a while, they all got quiet and really got into the music.  I played a little something like Sketches in Spain and then we went into the Bitches Brew shit and that really blew them out.” – Miles Davis  

Jorma played beautifully throughout. I noticed at this show and at the recent gig he did with John Hurlbut in Woodstock that he is comfortable in an accompanying role now, instead of having to drive everything himself.  I watched Jack pretty closely, and there were times when he appeared to go deep into a trance (below). I’m always on the hunt for that kind of highly restricted access in live performances. It’s amazing when it happens and you get to observe and feel it.

He also spent a lot of time just plain locked up with Ross Garren, as in the shots below.

There’s no doubt in my mind that some serious non-verbal communication was going on between those two.

My thinking is you better be on your "A" game if you’re playing with Jack Casady and he is looking at you like in the photo above right. 

Jack played the Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass, the same guitar I had seen him on the last time I saw Hot Tuna. Watching him play, I observed a couple of things.  He did often rest his thumb on the side of a pickup, but he also seemed to almost “recess” his thumb to a position maybe under his palm, at times.  And a largely light touch with the right hand most of the time.  Though I do remember him aggressively attacking at times too, like on the spectacular video of them doing Bobby Rush’s Bowlegged Woman.

This show was not the first time I had been introduced to musicians that I really needed to start paying attention to who were playing with Hot Tuna.  One really dramatic example of that was an electric Hot Tuna show about 10 years ago, also at The Bardavon. Suddenly, without warning or introduction of any kind, a stunning electric Blues solo came from a guitarist who simply materialized out of the darkness at the back of the stage. “Who the hell is THAT?” It was Robben Ford.  Believe me when I tell you: I then set about remedying my ignorance about Robben Ford, pronto.

Hot Tuna.  There is the stunning longevity of the band, with that being coupled to consistently great performances throughout, both live and in studio. I also think about all the devastating interpretations by Hot Tuna: Bowlegged Woman, Walking Blues, I Know You Rider, Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, Parchman Farm, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, the list goes on. Call me crazy if you must, but I also think there are many Jorma electric solos that simply encapsulate the entire Vibe of the Era. And I believe they always will.  I will add one more comment: Having seen Hot Tuna many times, it seems to me that these two guys have also somehow managed to avoid developing big egos, despite all their success. This seems almost as remarkable to me as their body of work. What a pleasure it is to have this deep, meaningful, and uniquely American music.                                                    

-          Dr. Carl, Nov. ‘25