Q Well, it's a Friday and it's a tough job that I have, because I have to be here with Jorma Kaukonen playing live music in the studio with Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin and Cindy Cashdollar on, I believe, dobro over there. Some sort of slide instrument. And it's your tough job, because you've got to hang out with us. Sometimes we're blessed.

Cindy Cashdollar, Barry Mitterhoff, Jody and Jorma

Jorma Kaukonen plays tonight at the Cactus Café, the second of two nights. His latest album is nominated for a Grammy . It's called "Blue Country Heart". We'll find out all about it. But right now, hear all about it. 107.1 KGSR, Jorma Kaukonen.

SONG: BLUE RAILROAD TRAIN
(Download this song as performed on KGSR (4:55) (MP3)

Q Unbelievable. Jorma Kaukonen. 107.1 KGSR. Cindy Cashdollar on the dobro. And Barry Mitterhoff on the mandolin. Blue Railroad Train is the first song on Jorma's new album, "Blue Country Heart". I remember reading, Jorma, before the album came out that you were going to be on Columbia Records and making a Bluegrass record.
A What a shocker. Well, it's not exactly a Bluegrass record, because I'm not a Bluegrass guitar player. It's sort of, in some respects, a rigid art form. But it certainly is Bluegrass-esque.

Q And now, it just makes so much sense to me, having lived with the record for a while, that it just sounds like a Jorma record to me.
A Right. Well - and that's very astute. I mean, I feel exactly the same way. People say, "How did you get here from there" and all that kind of stuff. I go, "It's just me."

Q It's what you do.
A Yeah.

Q On the record, you were doing it with folks like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck. And some fine players here today. In fact, Cindy, who we know right here from Austin, Texas, and playing with folks like Asleep at the Wheel. And Barry, I'm not -- I'm not -- I don't know who Barry is. Barry, who are you?!
A (Barry) I'm me, Jody. I've worked in a lot of Bluegrass bands and played in Austin a bunch with Tony Trishka and Skyline and a couple of other bands and thinks like that.

Q Well, I mean, it's a string-player's paradise in this room right now. You guys just sound like you've got a synergy going. Have you been on the road for a while?
A Actually, we're into our fourth week here on this trip. If you mean are we starting to get goofy, the answer is, yes.

Q Good, that can only be more fun for the folks at the Cactus Café tonight. Congratulations on your Grammy nomination.
A Thank you.

Q Best Traditional Folk album is the category that Jorma's album has been nominated in. Have you won a Grammy before?
A I've never had anything to do with the Grammys before, except watching them on TV. This is great.

Q That's amazing to me, with all the, you know, work that you've done. I guess the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, though, is more of an appropriate place, because that's where you do reside.
A Right. I'm a partial resident of the -- that's true. (Laughter). And I'm thrilled with that also. I mean, I have to admit, you know, you stay in the business a long time and you don't get into the music business to win awards. That's not what motivates you. But if they come along, it sure is nice. And, you know, I can go to Cleveland and go to the gift shop and get the inductee's discount for Christmas presents and stuff, so that's good.

Q There is a benefit!
A Absolutely.

Q Now, you mentioned Cleveland. You make your home in Ohio?
A I'm in southeast Ohio, yeah.

Q And tell me a bit about the Fur Piece Ranch that you and your wife --
A Right, the old Fur Piece. Well, we have a 119-acre farm there. And basically, it's a sort of a weekend residential music facility. Cindy's taught there. Barry will be there this year. We have all sorts of people. Another one of your Austonians (sic), Steve James, has been there a number of times. And, you know, we have all sorts of people there. And Guy Clark, all sorts of people. And we have a really great time. And the weekends last from Friday morning till Monday morning. And we're open -- actually, we're starting -- we're opening in two weeks. And we're open from February through November now.

Q So when you're not on the road, you're at the ranch?
A You bet, absolutely.

Q And it books up pretty quick, from what I understand.
A Actually, it's exceeded our wildest expectations. A lot of it has to do with what we do. And a lot of it owes a huge debt of gratitude to the Internet phenomenon. But we're almost sold out for this year already.

Q JormaKaukonen.com is one place you can find out more about the Fur Piece Ranch. And is it sort of like if someone out there is listening going "God, these guys are just playing so great, I wish I could just do -- you know, get in the ballpark with them." You try to help players?
A Right. I mean, you know, we try to -- when somebody wants to come to the ranch, we try to get them in a class so they won't be intimidated and just depressed because it's over their heads. But ultimately, nothing is over anybody's head. I mean, I took Cindy's steel guitar workshop last year. And so I know what it's like to struggle myself. So I try not to... you know, we try to make it unintimidating.
A (Cindy) But he was the star pupil, though, I've got to say.
A Oh, bless you.
A (Cindy) He really was. Lots of gold stars on the report card for him.

Q And your memorabilia, I'd imagine from the last close to 40 years you've collected a lot of stuff.
A We have tons of stuff and it's on the walls. And it's almost like one of these theme restaurants where they have pictures of old cars and stuff. Only instead of a car it's me.

Q I was trying to think of a snappy name for the place. You know, the Jorma Café. But actually, you have a name.
A Yeah, we have a little restaurant there. It's named after my mom. It's the Beatrice Love Kitchen. And my mom, God rest her soul, she wasn't a great cook, but she was a great mom and she did donate some money before she passed away to building the kitchen. So it's the Beatrice Love Kitchen.

Q Oh, man. That's a good thing. It's the Fur Piece Ranch Guitar Camp we're talking to Jorma Kaukonen about it. It's in Ohio. You can find out more on Jorma's website or give us a call later at 390-KGSR. Jorma's here with Cindy Cashdollar and Barry Mitterhoff. Tonight they have they second night at the Cactus Café. And Jorma's album -- his latest one -- is "Blue Country Heart". Do you want to do another one from the album or --
A Well, actually, I thought we'd do another one from a recently re-released album. And RCA has re-released "Quah", which I'm sort of excited about. Thirty-two years goes by in a blink of an eye, you know. And we're going to do a little instrumental off that. And then if there's time, we'll do another "Blue Country Heart" song for you. This is a little instrumental thing. It's called I'll Let You Know Before I Leave. And Barry has switched from mandolin to his vintage tenor guitar for this one.

SONG: I'LL LET YOU KNOW BEFORE I LEAVE

Q And that song can be found on the recently reissued "Quah". That was Jorma's first solo album back in 1974: I'll Let You Know Before I Leave. This album was hard to get a hold of for a long time.
A Right. It was out of print for a number of years. And we're thrilled that BMG or RCA or whatever they call themselves these days, has seen fit to re-issue it because now you don't have to go to Ebay to buy it if you want it.

Q And we did have to! Our music director at the station was married to the song Genesis.
A Oh, really.

Q And, so to get a copy for the person who played it, we had to go to Ebay to find it, because it was out of print. But now we have it. And there's four previously unreleased songs. Were these from the same sessions?
A They are all from the same session. You know, it's really funny, in the quest for outtakes with old things, in my experience, there's usually very few listenable outtakes, because the reason they're not used is usually because they're not good enough. But in this case, Tom and I originally were splitting the record. And today, Tom would just be considered a sort of a quirky singer/songwriter that plays sort of a, you know, Americana based stuff. But he was very odd to the RCA people, so they made me go back in and do most of the songs on the record. But I really like his stuff. Actually, there's still a couple more Tom things that are extremely odd that aren't even on this. But I'm just thrilled to spec out again. Tom's passed away. I'm sure his family gets a kick out of hearing him play again.

Q And that's Tom Hobson.
A Tom Hobson, right.

Q Who is the co-author of the "Quah" record with Jorma.
A Correct.

Q See, does this come back out because now "Blue Country Heart" is a popular record and getting acclaim other labels go, "Huh, Jorma's hot again. We can put out his stuff" or --
A I don't think that hurt any. Bill Thompson, who was the Jefferson Airplane's manager back in the day, still sort of spearheads our efforts with RCA. And RCA is re-releasing a bunch of stuff that will have some Airplane stuff in, Hot Tuna stuff. I think it was part and parcel of that. But it sure didn't hurt that I actually had a major label release to say, "Maybe we can sell 20 of these things."

Q So when material from the Jefferson Airplane or Hot Tuna is re-issued, perhaps the original records with bonus tracks, do you have input into it?
A Yeah, we do have input. As I said, there's always some stuff. There aren't that many bonus tracks, to be honest with you. And you never know when somebody's going to turn up. And you know, I'm certainly not a plunderer of the vaults. And there might be something that I or maybe none of us know about. And of course, we'd be thrilled if this were the case. But this many years later, they've pretty much raked the ground. But it's nice to make some of the stuff available that's been out of print for a while.

Q And it sounds better, too, when it comes back out.
A That would be my impression, even though there are those that swear that vinyl is the only way to go.

Q Well, if they can get the vinyl, fine, but I mean, for the CDs, the re-mastering just sometimes -- it knocks the dust off of the stuff and it sounds great.
A By the way, have you heard the SACD version of "Blue Country Heart"?

Q No.
A Because they recorded it in SACD 5.1. If you know somebody that has one of those systems, it really is a cool sound.

Q I had not heard that. I heard a couple of the Rolling Stones' records which recently came out in the Super Audio CD.
A Yeah, that's the Columbia -- or the Sony system.

Q And I'm hearing some rumblings that the Beatles' stuff is going to be re-issued soon and perhaps re-done in whatever format is proper for Capital Records.
A Right.

Q Jorma Kaukonen is our guest today. And this is a pleasure. And he's at the Cactus Café tonight. How did it go last night? Did you have a good night?
A It was great. It was great. And Barry's really thrilled that he was able to play the tenor guitar today, because you know, the Cactus Café is an intimate spot. And there wasn't enough room on the stage for the tenor guitar, so we had to do the song with the mandolin last night. Or Cindy's steel guitar.

Q When you're out in this setting, I'm sure there's people that will call out for Third Week in the Chelsea or songs from Hot Tuna "Burgers."
A And they get many of them.

Q They do?
A They get many of them, you bet. Absolutely. We are a cradle-to-the-grave repertoire organization.

Q That sounds like a title to me.
A Something. Yeah. I was going to say something else and then I realized I was on the radio.

Q Well, tell me later, because I'd like to hear --
A Okay. You've got it.

Q Jorma Kaukonen's here. And again, "Blue Country Heart" is the latest album. And also, "Quah" has just been re-issued. And we're going to go back to "Blue Country Heart" to wrap it, right?
A We are. And we're going to do a Jimmy Rodgers song. It's called Waiting for a Train. It also mentions the great state of Texas in a benevolent sort of way, so we'll do that.

SONG: WAITING FOR A TRAIN

Q Waiting for a Train is a Jimmy Rodgers song that you'll find on Jorma's Grammy-nominated album "Blue Country Heart". Jorma, you've always sounded so grounded and psychedelic at the same time. I don't know how that happens.
A I don't either. It was just a natural process. I mean, it's interesting from a player point of view, because I started out playing stuff like this. And then I got seduced by rock-and-roll, which was fine, which was okay. So, you know, every now and then we play something and you'll just have to go (bends guitar note) or something like that.

Q Well, you take us to places and I thank you for that. And everyone's invited to the Cactus Café tonight. My advice would be to get there early. Jorma Kaukonen is playing with Cindy and Barry. And good luck. Nominated for a Grammy, best traditional folk album, "Blue Country Heart". Good luck with that, Jorma.
A Thank you very much. Thanks for having us.

Q Yeah, and Cindy, belated congratulations on your playing on that Grammy Album of the Year by Mr. Bob Dylan.
A (Cindy) Well, thank you. It was a wonderful experience. Thanks.

Q And you did a great job. It was kind of like a puzzle trying to, now, is that part Cindy and is that part Auggie? I'm not really sure, but I know --
A That's a good description.

Q It would kind of come out of there every now and again. We want to thank Harvey and Paul, who helped make all this happen from Jorma's side, and our friend Chet. And big thanks to Jorma Kaukonen. Thank you, sir.
A Thank you.

Q Tonight at the Cactus Café.

(End of Interview.)