Vinyl: Jorma Kaukonen Reno Road (unsigned)

This blues and folk album presents the first recordings by Jorma Kaukonen (Engineered by Jack Casady) before Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. With an outstanding instrumental performance and refined acoustic arrangements, this is a must-have for blues and folk fans.

"A lifetime ago a confluence of events conspired to set me on the path that would define my life. In the spring of 1960 at Antioch College the great guitarist and singer Ian Buchanan would revolutionize my world by opening the door to fingerstyle blues guitar. That summer I moved to New York City for a couple of months and a summer job. Aside from going to work, all I did was play guitar. At the time I was not interested in sourcing the material. I just wanted to play… and play I did, relentlessly, every non-working, non-sleeping moment. At the end of that summer I was getting ready to join my family in the Philippines where my father was stationed. I stopped by my grandparent’s house in Chevy Chase to drop off some things and drove over to see my high school band mate Jack Casady. I had played in my first band with Jack in 1958 and we never let our friendship lapse. We went down into the rec room at his house, he set up his Wollensak tape recorder and I started to play. .. to show him what I had been learning. Sixty years later Jack rediscovered these old recordings (He never throws anything away…) and had our friend Rick Sanchez , sound engineer extraordinaire, restore them, opening a forgotten window into my musical history!" - Jorma Kaukonen