Credited to Jorma Kaukonen solo but featuring the guitarist in a trio format with Barry Mitterhoff and Steve Kimock, 2012-11-15 Bell’s Eccentric Cafe Kalamazoo, MI is both familiar and not. 

Like many of the archival releases from the Kaukonen/Hot Tuna vault, this concert recording finds the musician plumbing mainstays of his acoustic repertoire, including traditional numbers like “Hesitation Blues” and “I Know You Rider,” Jefferson Airplane’s “Embryonic Journey” and late-career originals like “Barbeque King.” Welcome songs always, they shine ever more brightly in the glow of Mitterhoff’s mandolin and the tasteful, understated colors of the plugged-in and unplugged axes of Kimock, whom Kaukonen refers to as simply, and admirably, “the shit.”

Kimock’s work on “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” so impressed the nominal star, he gives a little shout into the mic as Kimock solos. 

You don’t hear that from Kaukonen very often. You don’t hear Kaukonen and Kimock together that often, either. And that makes Bell’s Eccentric Cafe a must-hear, even though it’s filled with songs Kaukonen fans hear all the time.