Jorma Kaukonen: Jorma (1979) / Too Hot To Handle (1985)

Two solo albums from the ex-Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist: one acoustic and one electric.

"Jorma" is Kaukonen's first solo album after the classic "Quah". It's a bit unusual in that it has Jorma overdubbing several electric guitars. He obviously played around in the studio quite a bit for this album. The guitar sounds found here range from acoustic guitar to the biting electric lead guitar sound that was Jorma's trademark with the Airplane to the "hardrock" sound he often used with Hot Tuna.

While the concept of an electric guitar solo album may take a little time to get used to, much of the songwriting is prime Jorma: "Straight Ahead", "Roads and Roads &", "Song for the High Mountain" or "Wolves and Lambs" have all the beauty and yearning that already made the original pieces on "Quah" so compelling. 

"Too Hot To Handle" on the other hand is classic acoustic Jorma. Even if the style of playing is slightly different from "Quah" or the first Hot Tuna album. On those albums, Jorma's roots in the Piedmont style of Rev. Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt were more obvious. Here his picking is a little less intricate, but more aggressive and rhythmically accented.

Many of the Jorma/Hot Tuna live albums repeated the same repertoire over and over again, but here Jorma delighted his fans with a bunch of excellent new songs, many written in tandem with his wife, Margareta. The tone of the lyrics is often pretty dark, which may be a reflection of the times. The 1980s were indeed not too friendly to many musicians of the 1960s San Francisco scene, but thanks to the strenuous Relix label, many Bay Area artists found a home for their music.

Jorma Kaukonen: Jorma
RCA Victor AFL1-3446, 1979

Side One
Straight Ahead (Jorma Kaukonen, Bob Steeler) 4:15
Roads and Roads & (Kaukonen) 4:14
Valley of Tears (Kaukonen) 4:47
Song for the High Mountain (Kaukonen) 3:05

Side Two
Wolves and Lambs (Kaukonen) 3:30
Too Long Out / Too Long In (Kaukonen) 5:14
Requiem for an Angel (Kaukonen) 3:46
Vampire Woman (Smith) 3:27
Da-Ga Da-Ga (Numminen) 1:25

Jorma Kaukonen (voc, g)

Jorma Kaukonen: Too Hot To Handle
Relix Records RRLP 2012, 1985

Side A
Broken Highway (Malles Meje, Jorma Kaukonen) 5:16
Too Many Years (Kaukonen) 4:43
Radical Sleep (Meje, Kaukonen) 4:13
Killing Time in the Crystal City (Kaukonen) 6:44

Side B
Ice Age (Kaukonen) 5:54
Walkin' Blues (Robert Johnson) 3:37
Death Don't Have No Mercy (Rev. Gary Davis) 6:22
Too Hot to Handle (Meje, Kaukonen) 5:01

Jorma Kaukonen (voc, g)

"Roads and Roads &":


Nothing from "Too Hot To Handle" on youtube, but here's a nice live version of "Broken Highway" featuring David Bromberg: