One of my favorite albums, Burgers by Hot Tuna, which began as a side project for Jefferson Airplane members, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady, is one of the great hidden treasures of the early 70's blues/rock era. Joined by fiddle player Papa John Creach and drummer Sammy Piazza, the record opens up to the acoustic strains of a Mississippi delta-style number in "True Religion" which becomes further flavored by Papa John's wacky fiddle playing style complimenting Jorma's wah-wah guitar perfectly as the song's tempo picks up from its beginning blues shuffle to a double time jam; it lays out only a smidgen of what's to come on this incendiary release. "Highway Song" follows and has background harmony vocals from David Crosby laid within a number that has a blues/rock shuffle; again, John and Jorma's guitar/fiddle coupling seems to be a different style from the typical twin lead guitar couplings of the day and offers a unique twist. Jack Casady's bass playing is of course, forceful and quite prolific throughout the record, particularly on numbers like "99 Year Blues", "Ode for Billy Dean" and the album's closer in "Sunny Day Strut" and I would say in describing Jack's style and approach is almost that of a lead bass, that's how driving his style is and was one of the main ingredients within the music of Hot Tuna.

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"Water Song", an instrumental, is at the center of the record and is a beautiful acoustic track, showing off Jack and Jorma's playing perfectly. The main melody evokes that of a cascading chord progression and its title is very much apt. "Sea Child" is also an important track which has a little bit of pop thrown into its blues/rock mold and Jorma's vocal is solid and his lyrical style is evolving rather nicely from a writer's point of view. Some of the delta blues shuffles like "True Religion", "99 Year Blues", "Keep On Truckin'" and "Let Us Get Together Right Down Here" continue the style that was stamped out on the debut album, back when Tuna were simply a duo, and the ensemble of Creach and Piazza work themselves in rather nicely to these authentic homages within that genre. "Ode for Billy Dean" and the album's closer, "Sunny Day Strut" establish a more hard rock/blues vein in the spirit of bands like Mountain, of the time and would point towards the heavier era of Tuna on future releases like Yellow Fever and America's Choice, spotlighting Jorma's talents on the fretboard as well as Jack's prolific bass style. I would say that this is their greatest studio record, not only from a performance stance, but also from a songwriting perspective. Great record.

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Rating Grade- A