At Home at Red House

Jorma Kaukonen is best known for helping define psychedelic rock as the guitarist for Jefferson Airplane in the 1960s, and for playing with bassist Jack Casady in Hot Tuna for four decades. But this month, he releases his newest solo album, Stars in My Crown, on St. Paul record label Red House.

“In classic record company business, right after we got nominated for a Grammy in 2003 with our Blue Country Heart, Columbia Records dropped me,” Kaukonen says. While playing a gig at The Cedar a year and a half ago, Kaukonen approached Red House’s Eric Peltoniemi, a family friend, about joining the label. “I have always liked the Red House label and the people they have on it”—including the Wailin’ Jennys, Greg Brown, John Gorka, and Spider John Koerner—“so I really felt great about the whole thing.”

Stars in My Crown is a combination of old and new. For example, the track from which the CD’s title was derived, “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown,” is a nineteenth-century spiritual tune, and Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” gets a bluegrass treatment. New work includes “No Demon,” by the album’s producer, Byron House, who also played bass on the album, and “Heart Temporary,” “A Life Well Lived,” “Living in the Moment,” and “Fur Peace Rag,” all by Kaukonen.

Kaukonen’s trademark blues and fingerstyle guitar playing also are present on the record, but there’s additional instrumentation by other musicians, including Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin and banjo, Sally Van Meter on resonator guitar, Ed Gerhard on guitar, Rob Ickes on dobro, and Shawn Lane on mandolin. “When you say ‘solo record,’” says Kaukonen, “I have to laugh because, in our case, it took about twenty people to make a solo record.” But, he says, “I still sound like me. I’m not buried in the mix somewhere.”

Available March 13.