Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady – Bear’s Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them (Vets Memorial Bldg, Santa Rosa, CA June 28, 1969)

Captured by Owsley “Bear” Stanley’s tape machine in the summer of 1969, this set finds Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady standing at the crossroads between Jefferson Airplane and what would soon become Hot Tuna. Before the name, before the mythology, you hear two players testing how far guitar and bass can speak on their own.

Kaukonen’s fingerpicking is steeped in country blues, but he pushes it into louder, more electric territory, while Casady treats the bass as a lead instrument, answering and provoking every phrase. Bear’s trademark recording style puts you right in the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Rosa: the air around the amps, the grit of the tubes, and the small-club tension as songs stretch and mutate.

This is not a polished greatest-hits package; it’s a living document of two innovators discovering a new language in real time. For fans of Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, or late‑’60s improvisational rock, it fills in a crucial missing chapter. On vinyl, the warmth and space of Bear’s tapes really bloom, making this an essential piece for anyone who collects psychedelic-era live recordings and wants to hear where “they” truly began.