Founding Jefferson Airplane lead guitarist and Hot Tuna frontman Jorma Kaukonen will release a new archival live album, Wabash Avenue, this Friday, November 28, as part of the 2025 Record Store Day Black Friday event. The limited-edition two-LP vinyl set features previously unheard songs recorded at a solo acoustic show Kaukonen played in 1965 at The Offstage, a folk club in San Jose, California.
The album was recorded shortly before Jorma joined the Jefferson Airplane. It shows Kaukonen’s finger-picking style guitar skills on full display as he delivers deft versions of various traditional blues and folk tunes, along with a few originals. The tapes featuring the Wabash Avenue performance were recently rediscovered by Jorma’s wife, Vanessa, as they were looking through some items they had in storage.
The release of Wabash Avenue is part of the celebrations leading into Jorma’s 85th birthday this December 23. Kaukonen also has a series of guest-packed birthday concerts lined up in the coming weeks. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer recently chatted with American Songwriter about the new live collection and the special shows.
About the Wabash Avenue Album
Wabash Avenue features 19 songs, as well as an interview Kaukonen did with his wife discussing the recording’s history and its rediscovery. Quality of the audio is excellent. Jorma explained that this was because his college roommate at the time had a reel-to-reel tape machine that was “souped up” to make professional-quality recordings, and a condenser microphone “borrowed from the audio-visual department at Santa Clara University.”
The album includes covers of songs by such noteworthy early blues artists as Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Boy Fuller, Walter Davis, and Jim Jackson. A few of the songs were later recorded by the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Among those is an obscure blues song called “Blood-Strained Banders” that the Airplane covered in 1969 under the name “Good Shepherd.”
Wabash Avenue also features a performance of the original instrumental “Embryonic Journey.” Kaukonen later recorded the song for the Airplane’s classic 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow.
Kaukonen explained to American Songwriter that “Embryonic Journey” dates back to a couple of years before the Airplane were formed. He said the folk duo Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins had played at The Offstage and had introduced him to the song that became “Good Shepherd,” as well as to dropped-D guitar tuning.
Jorma proceeded to experiment with the tuning at home, and his roommate recorded him. As Kaukonen recalled, the roommate told him he thought he heard a song within Jorma’s guitar noodling. Kaukonen listened back to the tape and felt the same way.
“I had to tidy it up a little bit, but, basically, it’s what became ‘Embryonic Journey,’” Jorma shared. “It was … just another fortuitous accident.”
More Details About the Album
Wabash Avenue also features another original instrumental, “Lower Depths.” Kaukonen explained that that song came about thanks to a stage production of the Maxim Gorky play The Lower Depths put on by the University of Santa Clara’s theater department.
“[W]hen they did it live, I just improvised throughout that … show,” Jorma shared. The theater director had taped the performance, and Kaukonen found a section in the recording that he developed into the song “Lower Depths.”
Reflecting on the overall performance featured on the Wabash Avenue, Kaukonen noted, “[O]ne of the things that hit me when I listened to this … for a kid that really hadn’t been … fingerpicking the guitar that long, I was pretty good at the time. … I’m amazed in a way about how complete the music is for somebody who hadn’t really been doing it that long.”
He continued, “I think the answer to that is … I put the work in. You know the deal, as a guitar player. You put the work in. But my mentors, the people that brought me there, really infused me with the knowledge and the confidence that I needed to move forward.”
Wabash Avenue will be available exclusively at independent record shops. The discs are pressed on colored vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket. The packaging also features previously unseen photos from 1965.
About Kaukonen’s Upcoming 85th Birthday Concerts
Kaukonen’s upcoming 85th birthday concerts will take place in three different major U.S. cities in the next few weeks. The shows, which are all-acoustic, are scheduled for this Saturday, November 29, at Carnegie Hall in New York City; December 5 at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco; and December 13 at the Paramount Theatre in Denver. Jorma also already played a birthday concert on November 1 at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C.
Kaukonen will be joined at all the shows by his fellow Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane co-founder, bassist Jack Casady; longtime Hot Tuna touring drummer Justin Guip; and harmonica player, keyboardist, and composer Ross Garren.
Each concert also will feature other noteworthy guest performers. Steve Earle, the Americana duo of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, and guitarist G.E. Smith will hit the stage in New York City.
The San Francisco event will be packed with guest performers. They include Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks; Bruce Cockburn; bassist Sam Grisman, son of the famed bluegrass mandolist David Grisman; Kaukonen’s brother, Peter; and frequent Jorma collaborator John Hurlbut.
The Denver concert will feature Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and the duo of Native American cedar flute master R. Carlos Nakai and poet/percussionist Will Clipman.
About Earle, Kaukonen said, “[He’s] one of my old buddies. … I love him as a person [and] as an artist. His album … Guitar Town that came out back in the ’80s is, in my opinion, one of the great [alt-country] albums … of all time.”
Regarding Tedeschi and Trucks, Jorma noted, “I love Susan and Derek. … They’re great people, fun to work with. But I’m really excited … [t]o do something with the two of them acoustically.
About Kaukonen’s Other Touring Plans
Kaukonen will finish up 2025 with a December 18 concert with Hurlbut in Columbus, Ohio. He told American Songwriter that moving forward, he’s planning to lighten his touring schedule.
“I’m not gonna quit touring, but I’m just not gonna tour in the same way,” Jorma noted. He also said he will continue to play shows both as a solo artist and with Hot Tuna.
Looking ahead to 2026, Kaukonen has 15 U.S. concerts lined up with Hurlbut. In February, he’ll play four shows in Southern California, including a February 20-22 engagement at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Then, in April, he has an 11-date run of gigs plotted out from an April 2 performance in Austin, Texas, through an April 23 concert in Duluth, Minnesota.
Check out Jorma’s full list of shows at JormaKaukonen.com.
Wabash Avenue Track List:
“Come Back Baby”
“San Francisco Bay Blues”
“Kansas City Blues”
“In the Morning Blues”
“Follow the Drinking Gourd”
“Lower Depths”
“Embryonic Journey”
“Dime for a Beer”
“Twelve Gates to the City”
“Late in the Evening”
“Keep On Trucking Mama”
“Lord I’ll Be with You Always”
“Nine Pound Hammer”
“Search My Heart”
“15 1/2 Blues”
“Blood Strained Banders”
“Poor Ellen Smith”
“Winin’ Boy”
“Lullabye”
Interview
(Photo by Jeff Fasano Photagraphy)