Jorma Kaukonen is the wise sage, he who has seen all the places, and played all the notes. The musical soldier who performed through the trials and tribulations of his generation. Who weaved his way through the curses encountered by the counter culture, drugs, business, fame, and the struggle to remain relevant. Through it all Kaukonen has stayed true to the muse and more importantly to himself. A man and his guitar, counting on the depth of his talent and the love of his instrument to keep his direction true.

At Rochester’s intimate Innovation Square Kaukonen continued to blaze a path he has traveled for 60 years. While at times this path may have been littered with the remnants of the past, rattled by ear splitting on stage volumes, or obscured by shifting musical sands, he’s never strayed from his destination. Now, Kaukonen has completed the circle and is back to the beginning. You cant hide behind an acoustic guitar. There is a purity of form to acoustic music, an unabashed expression of substance and song expressed through the most basic and essential elements. It’s how he started, where he’s always returned, and where he will end.

Kaukonen walked on stage with a smirk and cradled his custom Flammang J-35 guitar which he received in 2020. He immediately picked the opening to “True Religion,” from Hot Tuna’s 1972 album Burgers. Armed with finger picks and blue tattoos Kaukonen eased into the song with the resplendent glow of the stage lights bounding around the arena in syncopated time.

His voice soft, broken in denim, punctuated by bluesy growls at the end of each line, his fingers soulful metronomes, retrieving harmonic chimes.

Over the course of the evening the small venue was transformed to pious pulpit to which Kaukonen preached a cross-section of his career; solo tracks, Hot Tuna, Piedmont blues and a Jefferson Airplane track for good measure.

“I See the Light,” from The Phosphorescent Rat, was admittedly missing Kaukonen’s better half Jack Casady to fill out the bottom end, but Kaukonen more than made up for this with his first stringy solo licks of the evening. His playing left the ground and the venue and soared high above the nearby Genesee River and into the great green Letchworth Valley.

After an earnest, “Thank you so much,” Kaukonen treated the hardcore in the audience to well played readings of two deep solo cuts “Requiem for an Angel,” from his 1979 solo LP Jorma and the ragtime blues of “Barbecue King,” from 1980’s Vital Parts.

A foreboding version of Reverend Gary Davis,’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” which by now has become a standard of Kaukonen’s repertoire was played with reverence. Kaukonen stuffed his phrasing into the verses like Dylan or Waits would, adding up to a special rendition.

The electric siren song of “Sea Child,” the second song to be featured from Burgers, took on a delicate buoyancy in its acoustic dressing. Comprised of alternating picking, sweeps, and funky strumming patterns, “Sea Child,” was desalinized to its purest form through Kaukonen’s playing. A highlight of the evening.

Kaukonen herded the multiple changes of a welcome reading of Jefferson Airplane’s “Good Shepherd,” to which the crowd responded excitedly. This was followed by a luminous performance of “Letter to the North Star,” penned in Jorma’s beautifully delivered vocal scrawl that enunciated the song’s melodic glow.

The main set closed with “Ice Age,” an appropriate song originally recorded for the live solo record Too Hot to Handle and then retrieved for Jefferson Airplane’s 1989 self titled reunion album. This reading was a chilling realization that history repeats itself and that not much really changes from decade to decade to decade. Kaukonen’s playing was highlighted by big strums, hard plucking, and suspended harmonic chimes.

Kaukonen then introduced his close friend and neighbor pal John Hurlbut to join him on the stage. Having a familiar accompanist on the stage opened up Kaukonen to not have to shoulder the entire musical load and just play lead guitar. This duo set began with a pair of Bob Dylan compositions, ‘She Belongs to Me,” and “I Remember You.” Kaukonen’s soloing was a patient and remarkable combination of melodic correspondence and conversational melodies. At moments his playing resembled that of his friend and fellow purveyor of the San Francisco sound, Jerry Garcia.

Kaukonen and Hurlbut moved through their set like two guys busking on the porch sharing a smoke. They engaged in subtle moves and knowing nods while attentively weaving rhythm and texture into a sparkling pair. Fantastic performances of the Fur Peace Ranch standard, “Travelin,” Slim Dusty’s, “Looking Forward, Looking Back,” and a poignant version of Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker,” brought the set to a proper conclusion. The concert concluded with an sing a long “encore,” performance of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” completing a triad of the evening’s Dylan songs.

From his old folkie days, to piloting a psychedelic ship, through the sit down strumming and stand up blues with Hot Tuna; Kaukonen has beautifully synthesized his career sonic excursions into a mellifluous career overview. Just like the 1972 Burgers LP told us to “Keep On Truckin’,” let’s hope Kaukonen keeps on doing just that.