Review By: JW Anderson

On Saturday, July 22nd, my son (Jorma, age 20) and I packed up and ventured the 200 miles NW of St. Paul to see Jorma and Mike at the CONTINENTAL DIVIDE MUSIC AND FILM FESTIVAL. This festival was a one day affair from noon til midnight. There were a number of Minnesota acts plus the main attractions of Koerner, Ray and Glover (the same Tony Glover who did the Liner notes for the DUANE ALLMAN ANTHOLOGY), Kate MacKenzie, Jorma & Mike and headlining John Hartford (remember this is NW Minnesota and they did have the good sense to invite Jorma & Mike).

After we arrived we found that there were only about 200 people, mostly families in attendance. It looked like a town picnic, a real friendly atmosphere. While wandering about who do I run into (almost literally) but Jorma & Mike wandering about. Gee, an opportunity of a lifetime. I introduce myself and of course introduce him to my son (his namesake). Given the environment I then have an opportunity to talk with Jorma prior to his performance on a range of subjects, including how grateful he is to play at a function like this, how he plans on making more trips to Minnesota, and that the NEW studio album will be out in September, and that after this show they will be taking time off until the Hot Tuna Tour.

Jorma and Mike set up and got on stage about 6:30 pm. Now remember this is a small crowd in a small town. Therefore no security and no need for any. So we were able to sit our butts in front, stage left. This afforded me the opportunity to get a number of good photographs during the performances. You noticed I used plural here. There is a reason for this given a very unusal situation, but more on that later.

Jorma and Mike talked back and forth with the crowd a while and then opened with Hesitation Blues. The show started on a high and just got better as the afternoon turned into evening. (A SET LIST follows this narrative) After about an hour and ten minutes, right in the middle of True Religion, the electricty blows and much to the crowd's delight they keep on going for a few moments, unplugged so to speak.

At that point, it was decision time for the organizers and the duo. Jorma and Mike decided they would just as soon continue after the problem was solved. At that point the announcer guy made the mistake of telling the crowd that HOT TUNA would be back as soon as the problem was solved. Jorma corrected him and said, "It's not Hot Tuna, Jack's not here." Enter the next problem. Remember the mention of John Hartford? Well he had to be in Dubuque, Iowa early the next morning, apparently to entertain on a river boat gambling excursion and wanted to come on early. Again the guys were very accomodating and agreed to come on after Hartford.

This gave some of us another rare opportunity; to have a beer and talk with the guys. While Jorma was otherwise engaged with certain members of the crowd I was able to talk with Mike, who is just as friendly and sincere as Jorma. Mike did tell me that for all the time he has played with Jorma, he has never seen or prepared a SET LIST. What amazed me about these 2 guys were that they willingly joined the crowd and engaged in conversation. Jorma even joined a family at a picnic table to talk. Great Guys.

During Hartford's performance, I told Mike I never could appreciate his music. Mike commented that he had never heard him before and that all he knew was that he wrote "Gentle On My Mind" and made a fortune on it. Finally Hartford was done and it was time for the duo again. At this time it was around 9:00 pm and getting dark. This set started with That'll Never Happen No More and this time the crowd was even more into the performance which the guys seemed to play off of. You could tell they were having a fun time. Soon it was darkness city on stage. The guys just had a small fuel powered candle between them that provided very little light. Isn't Minnesota unique? At that point Jorma told the crowd he was"... blind as a bat up here. I guess we'll do a Blind Blake song."

At this point comes Police Dog Blues, and they continue in the dark. I found out there was a reason for this. After dark, the plan was to show short films from Midwest filmakers, and there was no contingency plan for music into the late evening. Anyway soon it was getting late and darker so the guys ended the evening with a blistering rendition of Parchment Farm and the crowd screamed for more but to no avail. The organizers were set on showing short films. However, looking back, it couldn't have been a better day for us loyal followers. Thank you Jorma & Mike for a day to remember.

SET LIST

First Set

Hesitation Blues
Walkin' Blues
Death Don't Have No Mercy
How Long Blues
Do Not Go Gentle
I Am The Light
99 Year Blues
Good Shepherd
Ice Age
Sun Gonna Shine
San Francisco Bay Blues
True Religion (Interrupted by electricity outage)

Second Set

That'll Never Happen No More
Killing Time In The Crystal City
Police Dog Blues
Embryonic Journey
Uncle Sam's Blues
Parchment Farm

JW ANDERSON
ST. PAUL, MN