MAR 8, 2020, 3:44 PM
Don Aters
Paradox or Paradigm (Fur Peace Ranch / Hot Tuna)
Things change, it’s a right of passage but for The Woodstock Nation / Counter Culture, we cling to those ideals and the music and artists that alleviated the carnage & decadence of our generation. These were those “Golden Days”, untrammeled and unfettered, the psychedelic minds that evolved into today’s “mainstream”.
The storied venues are either fodder for music trivia or saturated with mediocrity as we peruse for a place to digress and remember those epic moments of music that mattered.
That brings me to Fur Peace Ranch in southern Ohio and the myriad of iconic bands / musicians who frequent this Valhalla, a smaller version of the hallowed hectares of Hyde Park in England or the magnitude of concerts in Golden Gate Park or Central Park in NYC.
It is when Hot Tuna (Jack Casady & Jorma Kaukonen) are there that the euphoria of psychedelia returns, even if only for those fleeting moments on those rolling hills in Meigs County, Ohio.
The lion like manes of long ago Fillmores & Winterland have given way to a more mature, “blues” oriented presence but “the magic” in still intact with two of the finest musicians in the history of recorded music. As a tandem, they are rich with resonation, still capable of captivating an audience while exuding the talisman magic powers that have always defined them.
Through the years, Hot Tuna has evolved into a parable of both “blues” and “rock n roll”, the tandem of irreverent free spirits that made the psychedelic movement a cultural phenomenon during the apex of “hippiedom”.
Maudlin to mod and now “The Dionysian Wariors” after fifty years of playing together. They speak to a generation with their noted craft, the ardor always a constant with appreciation of each other & as a band. They are a vignette of contemporary “blues”, a symbol of what once was and what continues to be. The music is a tool, a quantum leap that is essentially their way to speak for an entire generation.
“The magic” permeates the air while visiting FPR, great staff, scenic and the people who are the walking symbols of what we so desired for the entire population as children of the most violent decade known to man. We roll along as best we can, the ideology remains and as long as J&J continue to play, we traverse the highways and byways of this country just for those frozen moments in time that bring us back to the free shows of Golden Gate Park & The Panhandle while in search for our own identity. It's 2020 & time to roll down the road to Fur Peace Ranch........
Don Aters
