River of Time

Jorma Kaukonen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 10, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Red House
• ASIN: B001OBBRSI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,864 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Washington Post

Front-porch folk music doesn't get much better

Product Description

While America was in the throes of rock & roll's dawn, his ears were elsewhere as a devotee of acoustic bluesmen of the past. After relocation to San Francisco, he was one of the first to back another recent arrival (from Texas) named Janis Joplin. As founding member of Jefferson Airplane, he became pioneering architect of the guitar sound that became the genre Psychedelic Rock. His music became the soundtrack of the Counterculture and the Woodstock Generation, it's accompanying lifestyle / philosophy influenced millions. At the height of Airplane's fame as the most successful American rock band of the 1960s, he walked away to play roots music in Hot Tuna. The following decades he forged his own solo career and continued with Hot Tuna, was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and founded the Fur Peace Guitar Ranch.

RIVER OF TIME is the perfect distillation of the journey, some 50 years after he bought his first guitar.

Produced by Larry Campbell (Dylan Band) at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio, RIVER features Levon on drums and a cast of stellar musicians including mandolin virtuoso Barry Mitterhoff. Campbell also plays and his wife Teresa Williams lends her outstanding vocal prowess.

Six of it's thirteen songs are Jorma originals, a prolific showcase with themes of family, friends and inspired memory throughout.

The album also revisits the blues and country music that Jorma first fell in love with in his youth, featuring bright new interpretations of Mississippi John Hurt, Merle Haggard and Rev. Gary Davis...and pays tribute to old friend "Pigpen" Ron McKernan on the Grateful Dead's "Operator." Whether reinterpreting classics or crafting new originals and shimmering instrumentals, RIVER OF TIME finds Jorma at the top of his game with inventive arrangements and his strongest songwriting to date.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Jorma and a great follow-up to 2007's "Stars In My Crown", February 10, 2009

By 

Mike (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: River of Time (Audio CD)

"River of Time" features six Jorma originals...one, "Been So Long," which will be familiar to fans of Hot Tuna's second album First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, plus one written with Barry Mitterhoff (mandolin) and Larry Campbell (mandlin, guitar, fiddle, percussion), who play on most of the tracks. Campbell also produced the album, recorded at Levon Helm's Studio in Woodstock, NY. The Rev. Gary Davis track for this album...pretty much a prerequisite for Jorma's albums...is "There's A Bright Side Somewhere."

Levon Helm plays drums on "Cracks In The Finish," along with Lincoln Schleifer on bass plus Mitterhoff and Campbell. While it's primarily an acoustic piece, it easily could have been a Hot Tuna track. That's the strength in most of Jorma's music...his songs effortlessly due double-duty as electric stompers or living-room jams. Levon also plays on "Trouble In Mind" and Merle Haggard's "More Than My Old Guitar."

"Another Man Done A Full Go Round" is prime Jorma, reminiscent of so much of his solo and acoustic Hot Tuna work, the narrative songs like "Killing Time In The Crystal City."

"Izze's Lullaby" is a sweet, laid-back instrumental, the kind of composition that Windham Hill's musicians attempted many times during the label's heyday and only succeeded at delivering on rare occasions.

On "Nashville Blues" and Mississippi John Hurt's "Preachin' On The Old Camp Ground," Jorma shares vocals on the choruses with Teresa Williams. It adds nicely to the overall down-home feel of the album.

Grateful Dead fans will cheer "Operator," Jorma's tip of the hat to the late Ron "Pigpen" McKernan.

The combination of the right time in Jorma's life, the right studio, the right songs and the right musicians adds up to a winning one for you if you decide to purchase this album. From start to finish, it's all that you've come to expect from Jorma and more. Let's hope that this winning streak continues for many, many years.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blues Fingerpicking at its Finest, February 14, 2009

By 

Art and Music - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Time (Audio CD)

Jorma Kaukonen is a top-notch musician who plays and sings with feeling, sincerity, and authority. This excellent recording is another example of his fine writing and interpretive skills. And of course his blues fingerpicking ranks with the best.

The songs cover a lot of ground on the American acoustic roots-music landscape, beginning with several originals by Jorma and reaching back through the early Jazz Age and even to the Civil War.

"Preaching on the Old Campground" is Jorma's take on Mississippi John Hurt's ballad of the same title, which is a lyrical rewrite of Walter Kittredge's 1863 Civil War classic, "Tenting Tonight."

The version played here shows how an independent-minded musician like Jorma Kaukonen selects and arranges material according to good taste, instinct, and imagination-and not by the specified formulas of the fad-a-week mandates of the dreadful electronic entertainment industry.

Every song deserves its own commentary and review, but space considerations prohibit doing that here. Congratulations are in order for everyone who invested time, talent, and financial backing for this project. It is a wonderful recording and will be enjoyed by anyone who likes good music.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jorma's gentle River soothes the soul, March 1, 2009

By 

bluesfan55 (Leominster, Ma.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Time (Audio CD)

First of all, let me say straight out, that I love Jorma's previous works.
I have enjoyed his music since he and Jack Casady formed Hot Tuna. I enjoyed them in their electric format, however, the beauty of their acoustic playing really caught my attention. Jorma has always been a musician's musician. The beauty of his style is that the notes are played with such distinction and clarity. Jorma and Jack's "Hot Tuna Live in Japan" is a great picture of what magic these two masters can weave together.

I purchased the "River of Time" after reading a positive review and taking note that Levon Helm was a guest on the album. I have to say, that
my money was well spent. I have listened to the album three times and enjoyed it more with every listen. The music on this CD is played beautifully by a master who has learned much over the "River of Time"

Jorma has grown much spiritually over the course of his career. In one of the songs on "River of Time" he talks about loving his guitar, and about how much God has loved the world. Jorma reworks some older material on this CD, presenting it with new energy and beauty. I would recommend this CD to both older fans and those thinking about exploring Jorma's work.