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Hot Tuna, Live in Studio 4A

The guitar-bass duo known as Hot Tuna had its beginnings in the "Summer of Love" 35 years ago, with a phone call from one old friend to another.

As Jack Casady recalls it now, he got a call from his friend Jorma Kaukonen, "and he said he'd just joined a rock 'n' roll band — a folk-rock band, I believe it was called at the time. And I said, 'You're kidding - what's the name?' and he said, 'Jefferson Airplane' — and I laughed.

"And then," Casady continues, "I got the offer that changed my life" — join a rock band and get paid $50 a week "whether we worked or not. I said, 'You're on.'"

The Jefferson Airplane went on to fame and fortune and — largely on the strength of their second album, Surrealistic Pillow — induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame.

Kaukonen and Casady made several albums as the duo Hot Tuna, and have been touring on and off for 30 years. They recently joined Morning Edition host Bob Edwards in NPR's Studio 4A to talk and play a few songs from their repertoire of traditional folk and blues music.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.