Quah

Personnel: Jorma Kaukonen (vocals, acoustic, electric & 12-string guitar); Tom Hobson (vocals, acoustic guitar); Tom Salisbury (arranger, conductor); Gene Tortora (dobro); Nathan Rubin, Thomas Halpin, Daniel Kobialka, Carl Pederson, Eva Karasik, Anne Kish, Mischa Myers (violin); Nancy Ellis, Miriam Dye, Mary Jo Ahlborn, Thomas Heimberg (viola); Melinda Ross (cello); Arthur Krebiel French horn).
Recorded at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California between 1972 & 1974. Originally released on Grunt (BFL1-0209). Includes liner notes by Jeff Tamarkin.
By 1974, Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen had already started on his own path with his blues-rock side project, Hot Tuna, but with the Airplane's final flight behind him, he moved definitively beyond electrified psychedelic rock with his first solo album, QUAH. Most of the album is just Jorma and his acoustic guitar, and while this sparse format is ostensibly similar to some of the later Hot Tuna releases, it focuses much more on folk-tinged singer-songwriter balladry than on the country blues favored by Tuna. Those familiar with Jorma's Airplane ballads, such as "Good Shepherd," will recognize the sensibility at work here. Of course, there are some tracks where Jorma showcases his mastery of blues fingerpicking, and even some of the most overtly folkie tracks bear a bluesy tinge, but on the whole, QUAH is of a piece with the troubadour movement that was still all the rage in the mid-'70s.