1986-present Hot Tuna

hot tuna @ merlefest, 2006. left right, jack casady, jorma kaukonen , barry mitterhoff.

hot tuna again reformed in 1986, producer joey balin joining on rhythm guitar until 1987. kantner joined band in 1987 , 1988, adding old jefferson airplane songs setlist. grace slick showed on stage 1 show @ fillmore in march 1988. band continued 1989 , kaukonen , casady joined 1989 jefferson airplane reunion album , tour, performing acoustic hot tuna sets in middle of each show. @ end of airplane tour, hot tuna resumed electric performances, adding falzarano , drummer joey stefko. shortly thereafter, new yorker harvey sorgen replaced stefko on drums , galen underwood joined on keyboards first album of new material in 14 years, 1990 s pair dice found. kaukonen , falzarano both contributed original songs.

throughout 1990s, hot tuna again alternated between acoustic , electric styles. 2 sweetwater albums predominantly acoustic sets guests such bob weir, maria muldaur , former jefferson starship bassist-keyboardist pete sears; latter join group on permanent basis on latter instrument during decade. 1997 release live in japan in many ways reminiscent of first hot tuna album, having minimalistic sound , being recorded live @ tiny venue (stove s in yokohama). falzarano , sears stayed band until 2000s.

in 2004, casady , kaukonen joined guitarist barry mitterhoff , drummer erik diaz. in august 2009, following departure of diaz, skoota warner officially joined band drummer. in november 2010, hot tuna performed semi-acoustic trio: casady, kaukonen , mitterhoff @ midnight ramble @ levon helm s barn studio in woodstock, new york. in same month, kaukonen announced on blog hot tuna had begun recording first studio album in 20 years. album, steady goes, released red house records on april 5, 2011. first half of 2011, guitarist jim lauderdale , harmonica player charlie musselwhite toured them; later in year joined musselwhite, guitarists david bromberg, larry campbell, steve kimock, , g. e. smith, , vocalist teresa williams. both campbell , williams, guested on steady goes album, have remained band in touring capacity. in 2014, justin guip, had engineered album in addition kaukonen s recent solo work, took on drumming duties warner.