Jim: And we're back stage in Hartford and we're with Jorma. 

Jorma: Yes! 

Jim: How ya doing? 

Jorma: Great, how're you? 

Jim: I'm doing wonderful. I'm happy to be here. Actually, all the way from Tucson Arizona. So this is the closest we could get to the Furthur Festival, Hartford. 

Jorma: That's pretty close. 

Jim: How's it going? 

Jorma: It's really going great. Alot of fun and I'm sure if you talked to other people you got pretty much the same story. Really it's a great show, everybody's having a great time. 

Jim: Do you think this is the best, out of all of them that you've done? For the Furthur Festivals? 

Jorma: This is really different. This is less of a festival and more of a show. It certainly is the most successful. I don't think anybody will argue about that. It's really been selling unbelievably. The other festivals were really festivals. But you don't need a nine hour commitment to come and see this show either. You don't have to get day-long child care or something like that. It's an exciting show. It's a good one. 

Jim: And you're doing an opening set. 

Jorma: Right. On the inside shows like this one, we go on first and Rusted Root go on second. The outdoor shows, they go on first, we go on second and of course The Other One's go on in the exalted spot. 

Jim: What is the line-up for your band at this point? 

Jorma: We have, well it's Jack Casady, myself, Michael Falzarano, Pete Sears, Harvey Sorgen. It's actually it's pretty much the same band line-up we've had for almost nine years now. 

Jim: Oh, it's great to hear Pete Sears...I had no idea....I'm happy. 
 
Jorma: He is the greatest. 

Jim: You played in Arizona years ago. You actually came down to our radio station, KXCI, and you played in the studio. And the tapes we have in our archives of your performance at the station are some of our best. So I want to thank you for that. 

Jorma: Well you're certainly welcome and if they ever want us to come back again, we'd be more than happy to come down and do it again. 

Jim: I think we're ready for you to come down and play electric. 

Jorma: It could happen. 

Jim: Outside of your summers, which has been pretty regularly this, what else are you up to? 

Jorma: Well, I've got this guitar camp thing. This Fur Piece Ranch guitar camp that we've been doing in Ohio. It's pretty much happening from April through October. Except, of course, when I'm on the Furthur Festival and it's pretty neat little thing that we've got going. It's a rural county. It's a real camp.  But it's not roughing it, we have cabins and the whole deal. Hot Tuna, of course, has that new Live in Japan album. The trio thing that Michael, Pete and I have been doing (speaking of Pete) have an album coming out on Relix in the Fall called "Too Many Years". We'll be doing some of the songs tonight. So we're playing alot of music. And when I'm not actually on stage playing music, I'm doing the camp thing. So basically, it's a good life. 

Jim: Yeah, keeping certainly busy. More studio stuff in the works for you? 

Jorma: Well the trio thing is a studio that we just finished. That wont be out till the Fall. That's our last record for Relix. We'll be talking with them and some other people. Later on, after the first of the year, we hope to have another studio project but the newest thing will be the trio album. 

Jim: Any thoughts of releasing any old archival stuff from the 70s? Any of your electric performances? 

Jorma: Funny you should mention that. Well there's always thoughts of that. I don't actually have any good stuff on that. I know a lot of people do. But I have...Michael and I have a studio in Ohio and I was just looking through some stuff and I found the master tapes of an album that I did in '64 that's never been released. Actually there's enough for two of them. There's like 35 or 38 songs, I forget. Now to be honest with you, I don't know that there's anything still on the tapes because we haven't baked them and done all that stuff yet. But there usually is. If there's anything there we're definitely gonna do something with it. And as far as stuff from the 70's, if we can get some good sounding stuff, we'd love to do something with it. I have a bunch of board tapes from the 70's but they're not good like board tapes are today because these are in the crummy PA days. The guitars and the bass were always so loud that the only thing on the board is the vocals and the drums. So they're not really great sounding. But I'm sure there are some great sounding tapes out there. 

Jim: My favorite show is from '77, Ryan Field in Santa Clara, California. It's an audience tape and it's just fantastic. 

Jorma: Yeah in the old days the audience tapes were always he best. Somebody up there with a microphone. 

Jim: What else do you have planned for the long distance future? Are you doing any session work with other ... 

Jorma: Occasionally somebody asks us to do it. We did this thing with Paul Simon, Michael and I did that a couple years ago. Most of the time we just do our own stuff. My mind is always open if somebody wants to have...Mickey Hart asked me to do something with him for a new album of his. It didn't make it on the album because he decided he was going to do all percussions and no guitar, but I had a great time doing it. Somewhere, there's a mysterious Mickey Hart tape with Jorma in it. 

Jim: Well maybe in time it'll come out. I appreciate you talking to us and once again I'll say it and keep saying it over and over again....we'd love to see you out in Arizona. 
 

Jorma: We'd like to be there. 

Jim: I know the promoter that brought you last time. I'm gonna start really nagging him about it. 

Jorma: If Hot Tuna can't do it, there's always the Trio. 

Jim: Sounds great. Thank you very much.