BR: Everything goes in circles, right? Years ago, we were told that vinyl was out; we went from 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs … and now look where we’re headed.
JC: Oh, yeah: 8-tracks. (laughs) I just fired my old 4” turntable back up – of course, all the rubber had rotted out and it needed to be refurbished. I go online now and see what people are paying for tube amplifiers – it’s staggering. I remember back in the day paying $1500 for my Macintosh 3500 amplifier, which I still use on stage. Nowadays, people pay as much for stereo equipment as a house costs, you know?
BR: It’s true; it’s true.
JC: And if you’re talking about things going in circles, think about this: back in the 50s, everything was released as singles – and they took collections of singles and made albums, okay?
Then came the 60s – and I’m part of that “new generation” of music makers that made an album a whole entity unto itself. At that point, you had FM radio, which would play long cuts – or maybe a whole album. It was a revolution in music.
Now you have digital downloads, and people are splitting up albums – those little 55-minute or whatever entities – into singles again. (laughs)
BR: I hadn’t thought about it that way. I still think about albums as records: the lead-off song; the song that’s perfect to end side A; the killer song to begin side B; the album closer.
JC: Exactly.
BR: Look, I know we need to talk about the new Hot Tuna album and the upcoming tour, but I need to tell you something or my wife will never forgive me.
JC: Oh?
BR: Your solo album that you released in ’03, Dream Factor, is definitely a go-to album for us … especially during the winter months, for some reason. It has been since it came out.
JC: That’s fantastic to hear, as you’re one of the few people that even know about it. (laughter)
BR: Well, it’s true – it’s a great piece of work.
JC: Thank you. It’s funny you should mention that album, as I was dragging my rear end back and forth on the treadmill this morning for an hour and a half – like I do every morning – with my download collection on shuffle. The instrumental “Outside” from that album came up and I thought, “Damn – that doesn’t sound too bad.” (laughter) I hadn’t listened to it for a couple of years.
BR: “By Your Side” is probably my wife’s favorite cut. That’s a goal of ours: to live out that song, driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains together.
JC: That’s wonderful; thank you for sharing that. That song was inspired by my beautiful wife Diana … and we did take that drive. We just love to be together; we can do anything and have a good time – we love to just get in the car and take a drive with no agenda.
BR: Well, I may be calling you for directions someday …
JC: Anytime – anytime. (laughter) I’ll tell you a story about that trip: we were driving along and my wife sees this little creature making its way across the road. It was a box turtle – right on the centerline. And she says, “Look out – don’t run it over!” And I steer around it, but now that we know it’s there, we can’t just leave it in the middle of the road, right?
So, we pull over on the shoulder and dash back to save the turtle. It’s like something out of a cartoon: he’s just crossing the centerline, you know? And we get back to the car with the turtle about the time some big vehicle goes roaring by … and we say to ourselves, “What are we going to do? We can’t leave him here – he’ll just be out in the road again and be crushed.” We end up taking the turtle with us.
BR: In the car.
JC: That’s right. And we get to the lodge where we’re staying that night – a very rural setting – and check in.
BR: With the turtle.
JC: With the turtle, because it’s night and we’re figuring we’ll set it free in the morning. Which we do: we find a nice little spot in the woods and we let it go. Everything’s fine.
It was a few days later when we’re driving along and all of a sudden I go, “I wonder how that turtle’s doing?” And it was my wife who came up with this whole scenario: “Suppose he was on his way – the family had sent him out for a carton milk or something? And he never made it back …”
BR: But you saved him from some horrible fate …
JC: Yeah, but as far as his wife and the kids know, it’s like the classic ‘husband walks out the door to go to the store and never returns’ scenario. (laughter)
BR: Oh, man – you hope that he at least kissed her before he left, right?
JC: Exactly – exactly! (laughter) So we kept this routine going for a couple of years; we’d bring it up from time to time. Finally, we figured it must’ve taken him a year to get back home, you know? And we were talking about it and Diana suddenly looks at me and says, “Suppose … suppose she went ahead and … married someone else?” (laughter)
BR: Like Tom Hanks in Castaway!
JC: Yeah! He finally makes it back home and a whole new family meets him at the door! (laughter)
BR: Well … you had good intentions.
JC: It’s true …
BR: I tell you what: when the day comes, if we’re driving through that area and we see a really sad-looking turtle by the side of the road –
JC: (laughing) Talking and mumbling to himself …
BR: “I never shoulda took that ride.” (laughter)
Okay – I need to get back on track here with the matter at hand, which is the new Hot Tuna album. I know Jorma had recorded at Levon Helm’s studio before – was this your first experience there?
JC: Yes, it was. And it definitely has an atmosphere of its own. All wood construction with a great tone … and everybody was enjoying themselves. We set up as a band to play the basic tracks, got the sound so that everybody was happy, and then just played like crazy. We even played a Midnight Ramble with Levon while we were up there.
BR: Jorma and I were talking about the experience of working with Justin Guip as engineer …
JC: Oh, Justin’s great. He just settled in and got everybody’s tone right first; made everybody happy and comfortable.
We went into those sessions with a lot of material prepared and a lot of partial material that we completed while we were in the studio with input from everyone. It was that kind of true band format that I really love – we went in and made an album, you know? And I’m not talking free-form here; I’m talking good, solid musical ideas being put out to make the tracks sound good and concrete … really solid songs. Plus, we also had a couple of songs that really came out of left field … unique ideas that we wouldn’t have gotten if we hadn’t been in that environment.
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