Thanks to the coronavirus, concerts are on hold until further notice. We get it; but we don’t like it.

Artists and fans have been making the best of it, with bands using internet outposts to broadcast archival performances or set up live streams without audiences in attendance and with allowances for social distancing among the musicians.

The music is flowing, but the experience is suffering.

Not entirely, though. And it isn’t some millennial tech guru who cracked the code for putting real life into the livestream game. Rather it was 79-year-old guitar-playing legend Jorma Kaukonen and his crew at Fur Peace Ranch, the music compound he and his wife Vanessa founded in Meigs County, Ohio, in 1989.

Kaukonen, a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, began broadcasting “Quarantine Concerts” live from Fur Peace Ranch on April 4. It started as a simple idea: Kaukonen would play solo acoustic, answer a few questions submitted by fans via social media and make a few pitches to check out the merchandise in the Fur Peace Ranch Company Store. It felt more like a program from the Golden Age of Radio than a product of the podcast era.

That first concert was a beauty, with Kaukonen masterfully picking his way on acoustic guitar through such staples of his catalog as “Good Shepherd” “Water Song” and “Been So Long” as well as the deeper cut “Blue Railroad Train,” a Delmore Brothers song Kaukonen covered on his “Blue Country Heart” album.

The multi-camera production captured Kaukonen’s intensity and the sound was clear and crisp.  Vanessa presented a few questions, allowing Jorma to reminisce about the early days of Hot Tuna and to go off on some guitar geek monologues. If there is such a thing as a virtual standing ovation, Kaukonen got one, and committed to another concert the following Saturday.

Quarantine Concert #2 expanded upon the format by having Fur Peace Ranch aide de camp John Hurlbut sit in with Kaukonen to sing and play guitar on “Angel From Montgomery,” a fitting tribute to John Prine, who died earlier that week. There were more Jorma classics in the mix, such as “Genesis” and “Embryonic Journey” another deep dive into “Blue Country Heart” with “What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?” and a bust-out of the song “Ice Age,” which Kaukonen had not played since 2002.

Kaukonen’s playing and singing were exquisite throughout, and seeing him rifle through his songbook with a greater appetite for material to challenge himself and to bowl over even the most diehard of fans turned the Quarantine Concerts into must-see viewing for fans of this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.

Kaukonen wrapped up show #9 on May 30 and was on course for show #10 June 6. He’s only repeated four songs in this weekly series and pulled out some material that few could have imagined ever hearing live: a first-time performance of the beautiful “Song for the North Star “ (Concert #7) from the classic 1974 album “Quah”; “Song for the High Mountain,” (#6) off of his second solo album and unplayed since 1979;  a take on Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm” (#3), which Hot Tuna recorded a version of in 1990 but has been on the shelf as a performance piece for about a decade;  and many rarely performed Hot Tuna nuggets, such as “Letter to the North Star” (#5) and “Song from the Stainless  Cymbal” (#9).

The concerts showcase Kaukonen’s unique and distinct prowess as a blues player and as a songwriter whose connection to the open-hearted and open-minded feel of art from the psychedelic era blends well with a deep appreciation for and knowledge of traditional music that predates rock ’n’ roll.

The concert segments with Hurlbut (and a few with Kaukonen’s guitar tech Myron Hart) as a duo partner have greatly expanded a typical Jorma setlist by bringing in  celebratory covers of  Bob Dylan songs “All Along the Watchtower” (#5), “Chimes of Freedom”(#9), “I Shall Be Released” (#7),  and “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” (#6).

Hurlbut and Kaukonen have also shone a spotlight on lesser known artists such as Dillard & Clark, doing their “Kansas City Southern” (#6) and Spencer Bohren, whose “The Old Homestead” was featured in concert #4.  This dynamic duo has also busted out Ry Cooder’s “Across the Borderline” (#5), The Byrds’ “Ballad of Easy Rider” (#3),Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” (#7), Gram Parsons’ “Hickory Wind” (#8) and Ben E. King’s hit “Stand By Me (#9).” By show #9, Kaukonen announced that he and Hurlbut were making an album together.

Hot Tuna mate Jack Casady hasn’t been totally absent. Socially distanced and quarantined in his California home, Casady has taken to playing accompanying bass lines while Kaukonen’s stream airs on a big screen TV. Casady video records the virtual jams and posts a few songs each week on the Facebook page where Tuna and its fans congregate.

Pushing himself to craft setlists full of surprises, playing like he still has something to prove and weaving in freewheeling conversation, Kaukonen, along with his crew, has cooked up something that does not exactly replace the experience of being part of a crowd in a darkened theater falling under the spell of master musicians, but they sure have done an amazing job making us miss it a little less.

Kaukonen’s Quarantine Concerts stream live at 8 p.m. Saturdays on the Fur Peace ranch YouTube page and past performances are archived there as well.

When Gov’t Mule announced earlier this year that it would have Oteil and Friends opening shows Aug. 11 at the Roadrunner in Boston and Aug. 13 at the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, the mind reeled with the possibilities of what to expect.

Gov’t Mule co-founder and jam-world guitar god Warren Haynes and bassist Oteil Burbridge played together in the Allman Brothers Band for 14 years, and both have long-standing relationships with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, as Burbridge is a member of Dead and Company and Haynes frequently collaborate with Dead bassist Phil Lesh. Toss in the fact that both Gov’t Mule and Oteil and Friends are stacked with top-shelf improvisers with appetites for guest-spot sit ins, and the fixings were in place for a musical feast.

At the Boston show, Gov’t Mule and Oteil and Friends blew past expectations, delivering impassioned and deeply explored versions of Allmans and Dead staples as well as pushing forward the legacy of those bands with their own, original music, particularly in the case of Gov’t Mule.

Oteil and Friends did include a couple of Burbridge’s tasteful originals, including “Rooster” from his days with the Peacemakers, but the hour-long set was mainly packed with Grateful Dead and other Jerry Garcia – related nuggets. Oteil’s friends on this outing are guitarists Tom Guarna and Eric Krasno, keyboard player Jason Crosby and drummer Pete Lavezzoli. The group conjured the jazzier, more complex aspects of Grateful Dead music, opening with a sprawling “Here Comes Sunshine.” Guarna and Krasno -- the former from the jazz world, the latter from the soul and funk realms -- blended their respective, distinctive tones and approaches to improvising to create some beautiful passages. The group was most interesting when exploring the contours of the spry instrumental “King Solomon’s Marbles” and reformatting “Midnight Moonlight” from its bluegrass origins to a thumping rocker.

For its big finale, Oteil and Friends welcomed Haynes on stage for a blazing rendition of the Allman Brothers Band’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” You sort of knew a moment like this was coming, yet certainly not expected so early in the evening, before the headliners had even yet taken the stage. But there was no holding back as Haynes, Guarna and Krasno traded inspired solos, Burbridge took the groove way out, Lavezzoli held it all down and Crosby pumped soulful organ tones through the jam (which for a moment turned into The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” before settling back into “Liz Reed”).   

Gov’t Mule launched its two-plus-hour set by reaching back to its classic 1998 album “Dose” for “Thorazine Shuffle.” From the jump, Gov’t Mule was sounding fierce, with each member of the quartet playing with equal parts muscle and brains. Haynes, drummer Matt Abts, keyboard, guitarist and horn player Danny Louis, and bass player Jorgen Carlsson all functioned as soloists and supportive ensemble members, dissolving traditional boundaries between rhythm and lead players.

This fluidity worked well no matter which direction Gov’t Mule took the music, and the band indeed covered an expansive landscape. After visiting knotted psychedelia from its formative years when the band was a trio of Haynes, Abts and the late, thundering bass monster Allen Woody, Gov’t Mule jumped to the wiry funk of “Stone Cold Rage” from 2017’s “Revolution Come…Revolution Go,” the band’s last release of original material (though Haynes is saying a new Mule album is due around March).

Gov’t Mule’s most recent release is “Heavy Load Blues,” a collection of vintage blues songs and originals performed in a stripped-down blues fashion. The band delivered that project’s pairing of Junior Wells’ “Snatch It Back and Hold It” and the original “Hold It Back,” producing a far-reaching tune that also retained a sharp, R&B-honed edge reminiscent of music by The Yardbirds.

Then the Mule climbed higher, crafting an oozing and pulsing take on its menacing “Game Face” that transitioned into a soaring version of the Allmans’ classic “Mountain Jam.” It was here that you realized just how good Haynes and crew are as they conjured the full cinematic sweep and conversational dynamics of the song with a single guitarist even though this is most often a vehicle for twin-guitar duels.

“Time to Confess” brought forth a shot of reggae, and “Captured” sounded like a stomping homage to Neil Young and Crazy Horse, insinuating that “Down By the River” was going to surface at any moment (elsewhere in the show, Haynes outright teased Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon” and The Turtles hit “Happy Together”).

After a long, fierce psychedelic take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)” that flaunted Gov’t Mule’s ability to go deep into a groove, the concert became an extended celebration of the Allmans and the Dead.

First, Gov’t Mule worked through the jazzy ABB instrumental “Kind of Bird.” Then Burbridge and Guarna joined the Mule (minus Carlsson) for a galvanizing version of the Allman Brothers’ anthem “Dreams.” Haynes always had a knack for putting a rough and tumble tone to this song, though Guarna was free to move through the tune in his own, more lithe way. For his part, Burbridge conjured pure joy through his playing.

Guarna departed and Krasno and Crosby entered for a long, loping and euphoric version of the Garcia/Dead staple “Sugaree” that brought out the best in everyone on stage; the musicians played with patience, emotion and devotion, so even those of us who have heard the song innumerable times were hearing something born anew.

The guests departed and Carlsson returned to close the show with a tight and rollicking read of Al Green’s “I’m a Ram.” Gov’t Mule finished up with an encore of its rambling road song “Traveling Tune,” a nice send off after a big dose of the stronger stuff.