Hot Tuna
Final Vinyl

Listening notes

Hot Tuna's Final Vinyl, released in 1979 on Grunt Records under catalog number BXL1-3357, arrives with a title that announces itself plainly. The record is catalogued under the genres of Blues, Blues Rock, and Rock, and its ten tracks are distributed evenly across two sides.

Side A opens with "Hesitation Blues," running five minutes and five seconds, and moves through "Candy Man" at three minutes and fifty-nine seconds before reaching "Keep On Truckin'" at three minutes and forty seconds. "Water Song" is the longest track on the side at five minutes and fifteen seconds, and "Day To Day Out The Window Blues" closes the side at three minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Side B begins with "Easy Now" at five minutes and ten seconds, followed by "Funky # 7," which at five minutes and forty-seven seconds is the longest single track on the record. "Hot Jelly Roll Blues" runs three minutes and eight seconds, making it the shortest track overall. "Song From The Stainless Symbal" follows at three minutes and fifty-eight seconds, and "I Wish You Would" closes the album at four minutes and twenty-eight seconds. The total runtime across both sides extends well past forty minutes.

The tracklist draws on titles with clear roots in traditional blues vocabulary — "Hesitation Blues," "Candy Man," and "Hot Jelly Roll Blues" each carry names long associated with the genre — alongside titles that read as original compositions or adaptations. The title Final Vinyl is a matter of record as the album's name. What that title signified at the time of release, and what followed for the group afterward, falls outside what these facts alone can confirm.

This is an unreviewed draft. All claims should be verified before publication.