Jorma Kaukonen
HOT AGAIN After the Airplane and the Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen Grazes in the Bluegrass
Jorma Kaukonen has never seemed happier. Not only does the legendary 61-year-old guitarist own a thriving side business with the Fur Peace Ranch, a camp in Ohio where amateur players rub shoulders with music's elite; he has just released the first of a six-album deal with Columbia Records, Blue Country Heart. A superb collection of vintage bluegrass and Depression-era tunes, familiar and obscure, the album unveils another facet of Kaukonen's ongoing love affair with American music, a relationship that has already left an indelible legacy through a 35-year recording career and his artistically fertile tenures with Jefferson Airplane, and Hot Tuna, and on his own. Kaukonen's sunny disposition is unmistakable and is reflected in the contented, relaxed feel of Blue Country Heart. David Cohen spoke with Kaukonen during one of the busy axeman's increasingly rare days off.
B&N.com: Blue Country Heart is a stylistic departure for you. Was the experiment with bluegrass music a success?
JK: I'm thrilled about Blue Country Heart. I'm completely happy with it and really like the way I sound. The guys who play on it are just unbelievable.
B&N.com: Describe the album's creative process.
JK: We started with a couple hundred songs, I'm guessing, and it took a year and a half to winnow them down. We really wanted to keep the songs within the bluegrass genre, and also within in a loosely definable period [1920s-'30s]. But once we chose the songs I realized that this album is a metaphor for where I am today. I didn't plan that, and it's not biographical, but they're all songs I can really relate to.
B&N.com: This material is very well suited for you. How did you find songs you might not have known about?
JK: The Washington Phillips song, "What Are They Doing in Heaven Today"' immediately pops into mind. Washington Phillips was a black gospel singer who played the dulceola, an odd instrument that's a cross between a zither and autoharp. I heard some of his stuff and never knew what he was playing. Last summer I was in California and [guitarist] G. E. Smith played me a Washington Phillips CD, and it set me on fire. I don't know why, but I just loved the song and I adapted it for myself. On the other hand, I already had a connection with the Jimmie Rodgers song "Waitin' for a Train," which I had on record as a kid. My dad had a couple albums of Lefty Frizzell doing Jimmie Rodgers songs that he probably got from a hi-fi club he belonged to back in the '50s.
B&N.com: Is there another bluegrass album in you?
JK: I'm certainly not through mining this period, because it's just such fun to play. I'm going to try and hang in there, because it's a little different from what I've been doing over the years. It certainly tweaks my musical libido. And believe me, anything that tweaks your libido at my age is a good thing.
B&N.com: Blue Country Heart is unusual for you in that it contains no original material. Have you continued to compose songs?
JK: I'm still writing. I'm not a prolific songwriter but I keep stuff going and I almost have enough to do another album. But musically speaking, Blue Country Heart is a fresh thing for me, and that's really neat. As a performer who's been in the business a long time, sometimes you have to work at retaining freshness -- not sounding like "Oh, he's playing those songs again." You try really hard to avoid that. But every now and then something like Blue Country Heart happens, where I really look forward to playing these songs. For me, that's really exciting stuff. The same thing can be said of my life today. I think about my dad, who at my age was either retired or just retiring. He was a civil servant who worked for the government, and he liked being one of the boys. That's not for me, but he liked it. Once he retired he could no longer do what it was he loved to do. He was out of the club, just an old retired guy. But I get to do what I've been doing all my life, and it just keeps getting better. I hate to gush, but I'm a lucky guy. I feel great. I've had a really great year, a great couple of years actually.
B&N.com: You've had a long and successful career. You're a positive inspiration to your fans.
JK: Lord knows, I've inspired them in many other ways.
B&N.com: Are you surprised at the longevity of your recording career?
JK: The music I love has a really long shelf life. Some songs stand the test of time better than others, but the music itself is there for me all the time. You can play it this way or that, but like I tell the guys at my guitar camp, it's not about a simple or a complex song, it's just about a good or a bad song. Few of us got into the music business as a career because we thought we were going to make a certain amount of money. We like to get paid, but that's not what it's about. I honestly cannot imagine what I would have done besides a music career.
B&N.com: What music should a bluegrass fan seek out?
JK: There's an unbelievable wealth of music people can look into. Anything by Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck, or the other guys on my album, or the two recent Dolly Parton records, for examples. At some point you're going to have to go back and listen to Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Stanley Bros. Each artist will lead you to different places.
B&N.com: Do you see yourself as a rock 'n' roll legend?
JK: No. I have too many humbling experiences in my life that keep that from happening. But I do feel fortunate to be as healthy as I am today. When you think of my contemporaries, myself included, you hear them complaining about record companies, about how "they wouldn't let me do this or that and blah blah," some of which is, no doubt, founded. But I have nothing but nice things to say about my relationship with Columbia Records. They let me make the album I wanted to make, with the people I wanted to make it with. They're actually going to release it, and they say they're going to promote it! What a concept! It's great.
B&N.com: Any words of wisdom for our readers?
JK: You can't preach to people, but it's a lot more fun to be happy than it is to be miserable. That's a goal for me to work for, and I'd recommend it for other people too. Also, it's just nice to be alive, and be able to still enjoy things. There's a lot of weird stuff going on out there, I know that, but there's also a lot of positive things that help to sustain us.
B&N.com: Will you still be picking and recording 10-15 years from now?
JK: I sure hope so.
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