Hot Tuna - Keep on Truckin': The Very Best of Hot Tuna

Although there are several Kaukonen originals collected here, the strongest tracks are blues covers, including versions of Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues," Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied," and a delightfully goofy and ramshackle take on Rev. Gary Davis' "Candy Man".

Tracks
01 Hesitation Blues [live] Traditional 5:09
02 Death Don't Have No Mercy [live] Davis 6:17
03 Candy Man [live] Davis 5:52
04 Come Back Baby [live] Hopkins 9:38
05 True Religion Kaukonen 4:46
06 Keep on Truckin' Carleton 3:42
07 Water Song Kaukonen 5:19
08 I See the Light Kaukonen 4:19
09 Funky #7 Cassidy, Kaukonen 5:50
10 Walkin' Blues Johnson 5:22
11 Sunrise Dance with the Devil Kaukonen 4:31
12 I Can't Be Satisfied Morganfield 3:56
13 Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning [live] Davis 3:36
14 Killing Time in the Crystal City [live] Kaukonen 7:20

Review by Steve Leggett
Originally formed by Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady in 1969 as a side project, Hot Tuna ended up outlasting its parent group by a country mile, logging up a four decade (and counting) run that has included some two dozen albums and over ten thousand live performances, making Tuna the reigning godfather of jam bands. Originally designed as an acoustic duo that would allow Kaukonen and Casady to explore their love of folk, blues and jazz, Hot Tuna grew loud, rocky and electric for a time and then shrank back down to the acoustic format again, never straying too far from the country blues, which means they sounded more like the Grateful Dead on most nights than any version of Jefferson Airplane. This anthology of Hot Tuna's RCA years covers 1970 to 1978; Keep on Truckin': The Very Best of Hot Tuna includes tracks from the albums Hot Tuna (1970), First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971), Burgers (1972), The Phosphorescent Rat (1973), America's Choice (1975), Hoppkorv (1976) and the live Double Dose (1978). Although there are several Kaukonen originals collected here, the strongest tracks are blues covers, including versions of Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues," Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied," and a delightfully goofy and ramshackle take on Rev. Gary Davis' "Candy Man." Always more effective as a live act than as a studio one, the final two cuts, a rendition of Davis' arrangement of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and a Kaukonen original, "Killing Time in the Crystal City," both drawn from the live Double Dose album, show Hot Tuna at its best. It's hard to argue with the group's longevity, but when you're talking about a band that is known for doing shows that can last up to six hours, it's difficult to bottle it all into a 75-minute CD. As a single-disc sampler, though, this will get you started until you can score a ticket to one of Hot Tuna's live shows, which is where their real legacy can be found.