One of the greatest perks of collecting underground recordings is occasionally getting a show that you were at. This is even better when it's one of your favorite bands.

Hot Tuna has been one of my faves for the last 23 years. They originally sprang from another of my faves, the Jefferson Airplane, in the late 60s. The lead guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, and the bass player, Jack Casady, liked to kill a little hotel time playing old time blues tunes as an acoustic duo. This eventually led to a "Hot Tuna" section of the Airplane shows, while the rest of the band took a break. After the band broke up, Jorma and Jack expanded Hot Tuna into a full electric rock and roll band, but never grew completely away from the Tuna's acoustic roots, and eventually started doing more acoustic shows than electric. Today, they have three tour schedules: One electric, one acoustic, and one acoustic with a mandolin player.

According to the band, the name came from one evening when the Airplane were tooling around Greenwich Village after a show. Driving slowly past one of NY's "street workers", one member of the band asked "What's that smell like fish?" The answer came back "Hot Tuna." That line later appeared in the song "Keep on Truckin'", hence last week's clue.

I've seen Hot Tuna many times, both electric and acoustic, but by the time this show came around it had been many years since the last time. Great shows come few and far between to New Mexico. Not only were they playing in Albuquerque, they were playing about one mile (as the crow flies) from my old place, at a dark little dive called the Sunshine Theater (one of my favorite venues in 'Burque). This was billed as a 3 piece Tuna with Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin, but it turned out to be basic, stripped down acoustic Hot Tuna. That didn't bother me one bit. I like the various lineups, but all I really need is to hear is Jorma and Jack doing what they do best, and that's exactly what I heard from my front  row seat!

Now from a collector's viewpoint, they can be a difficult band to collect, as they disapprove of electronic trading. Therefore, no downloads. I got this simply by trolling through posted lists, and happening to be lucky enough to find a guy in W. Virginia who had this as well as a Neil Young show I saw. I managed to set up a snail mail trade, and got both shows. It's an audience recording, which means that it's a little "boxier" in sound than the other things I've posted, but it still sounds great and is a joy to listen to. Listening to a recording of a show you were at helps bring back a lot of memories from that show, and is a terrific way to relive it, to some extent. Listening to this, I can remember the folding chairs in what is normally an open area, I can recall some of the people around me (some with their kids!), and I can feel once again how freaking COLD it was in that theater!

Now, I expected this to be a fairly easy one to guess, for two reasons. First, my regular readers include two other fans of San Francisco music, O'Tim and Mark. Second, I found Hot Tuna right away when I Googled the clue. However, no one Googled and O'Tim doesn't come to my blog as often as he should, the yankee bastich, so it took awhile. The two of them do-si-doed around each other for a bit. O'Tim answered it first in e-mail, and technically he posted it first publicly, but Mark also made the first public post that made it clear he knew the answer. Thus, I declared it a tie. I'll try to send off your copies next week.

While Hot Tuna does have many originals, the tune I share this week is a classic- Jessie Fuller's San Francisco Bay Blues. Many people are familiar with this song because of Eric Clapton's fine version, but I personally like this one much better. You can hear how the crowd's full attention is grabbed by the band and held until the song is over. I also picked this cut because it lets you listen to Jack show off a little.

Oh, and these guys TEACH, as well. If you play guitar, and want to learn from Jorma or Jack, visit the Fur Peace Ranch.

Click here for Hot Tuna playing "San Francisco Bay Blues" at Albuquerque's Sunshine Theater on Feb. 9,2004.

Next week: Is it a man or a building?