Steady as She Goes

On their first studio album since 1990's <i>Pair a Dice Found</i>, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady brighten Tuna's palette with mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff and guitarist/fiddler Larry Campbell. They're still at their best reinvigorating the Rev. Gary Davis' country blues—heard here in "Children of Zion" and "Mama Let Me Lay It On You"—that Kaukonen cut his teeth on. Originals like the gassed-up "Easy Now Revisited" and reflective "Second Chances", meanwhile, find the guitarist mulling things over in middle age.