Singer-songwriter, artist, and guitar builder Victor Gurbo joins the show to discuss formative concert experiences and his own work. He recalls seeing Arlo Guthrie as a child, becoming a devoted Bob Dylan fan (having seen him 20–30 times), and admiring Levon Helm’s audience connection, including a Terminal 5 performance after Helm’s cancer battle. Gurbo shares a chaotic Jack White Radio City show where lost StubHub tickets were replaced at the last minute with front-row seats, only for White to end the set early, souring Gurbo on his music. He describes building guitars from reclaimed wood, inspired by Rick Kelly’s “Carmine Street Guitars,” and how that led to making his own instrument for NPR’s Battle of the Boroughs, which his band won for Brooklyn in 2013. Gurbo also plugs his new album, “Gurbo and Company Live 2025,” recorded at Cafe Wha? and released March 11, 2026.
In this episode, Charles sits down with Victor Gurbo, a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and guitar builder from Brooklyn, New York. Victor's musical journey began early — literally from infancy, when his father discovered that Traveling Wilburys recordings were the only thing that could calm a crying baby Victor. That early imprinting on Dylan's collaborators set the stage for a lifelong obsession with live music, particularly the work of Bob Dylan, whom Victor estimates he has seen between 20 and 30 times. The conversation opens with Victor recounting his very first concert at age nine — an Arlo Guthrie show in Martha's Vineyard — a memory that exists more in fragments than in full, including nodding off during parts of the set, only to snap back awake for "Alice's Restaurant."
The episode is rich with vivid concert memories. Victor shares stories of seeing Levon Helm multiple times at the Beacon Theatre and Terminal 5, reflecting on how Helm's deep love for his audience was palpable, especially after his battle with throat cancer. Victor also recounts a bittersweet Conor Oberst show in 2008, where he got to hear a then-unreleased song that would later appear on the next album — the kind of "you were there first" moment that makes live music so irreplaceable. But perhaps the most memorable story is the infamous Jack White show at Radio City Music Hall in 2012. After losing their tickets outside the venue and spending an hour on hold with StubHub, Victor and his friend were gifted front-row seats by a compassionate employee — only to watch White cut the show short, apparently unhappy with the audience's energy. For Victor, a performer himself, the experience was deeply personal and left a lasting impression on how he thinks about the relationship between an artist and their crowd.
Victor's life as a performer and craftsman are equally compelling. After ordering a custom guitar from legendary New York luthier Rick Kelly — who famously builds instruments from the reclaimed wood of demolished Manhattan buildings — and waiting four and a half years for it to arrive, Victor taught himself to build guitars in the meantime, eventually winning Best Band in Brooklyn at NPR's Battle of the Boroughs in 2013 with an instrument he made himself. Since then, the band has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall, where a mid-show equipment failure became the crowd's favorite moment of the night. Most recently, Victor released Gurbo and Company Live 2025, a live album recorded at NYC's Cafe Wha? featuring eight tracks, including covers of Bob Dylan's arrangement of "Rollin' & Tumblin'" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." Victor can be found on all social platforms as Victor V. Gurbo, and his website has upcoming show dates and vinyl copies of his pandemic-era home recording project, Outrun the Invisible Man.
BANDS: Amos Lee, Arlo Guthrie, Beach Boys, Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Jack White, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Levon Helm, Mad Meg, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Phoebe Snow, Scotia Rose, The Cure, The Villalobos Brothers, Traveling Wilburys, U2, Weezer, White Stripes, Willie Nelson.
VENUES:
Beacon Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Cafe Wha?, Carnegie Hall, China Club, Governor's Ball, Highline Ballroom, Jones Beach, Mercury Lounge, NPR Green Space, Radio City Music Hall, Riot Fest, Terminal 5.
[00:00:23] Victor Gurbo: And so we're out there for so long to a point where, my friend says, you see that guy over there with tickets? I say, yeah. And he goes, so here's my plan. I'm gonna jump him and try to take the tickets and the security guard's gonna shoot me. And that way I don't have to deal with the shame and humiliation of losing these tickets, which I said, you know, man, this point I'm up for anything. Go for it.
[00:00:42] Charles: My guest today is Victor Gerbo. Victor is a singer songwriter artist and guitar builder from Brooklyn. In 2013, Victor participated in the Battle of the Boroughs at NPRs Green Space where his band went on to win the title of Best Band in Brooklyn. Since [00:01:00] then, Victor and his band have played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, and many other venues throughout New York City.
[00:01:07] He performs with an electric Americana backing band and as an acoustic act. On March 11th, Victor released an album called Gerbo and Company Live 2025, recorded last year at New York City's Cafe Wha? Victor, welcome to seeing them live. I would also like to thank Igor Resnick from 1K Music PR for setting up this interview.
[00:01:30] Victor Gurbo: Thanks so much for having me.
[00:01:31] Charles: And I'd also wanna thank, Igor Resnick from One K Music PR for setting up this interview with you today.
[00:01:38] Victor Gurbo: Yeah, and also the next time Mad Meg's playing, which is a band that he's a part of, I highly recommend checking them out. Some of my best live concert experiences have been at their shows. They are out of this world. I love them.
[00:01:48] Charles: We'll bring those guys up a little bit later here in the interview, but yeah, I like their music as well. So, I thought we'd start with some of your concerts and then move into your guitar building making.
[00:01:59] Victor Gurbo: Sure.
[00:01:59] Charles: [00:02:00] And your music course. So, your first concert was one that you don't remember because you were like nine years old.
[00:02:07] Victor Gurbo: I was nine. I was nine. It's funny for this and I was chatting with Igor. He said, did you respond yet? And I said, I'm still doing research. I'm still trying to figure out when the show was. It was 1997. It was in Martha's Vineyard. It was in an old church. And my memories of it are touch and go.
[00:02:23] But I do remember that at that point when I was younger, there was a handful of songs that I insisted get played in the car, probably ad nauseum to a point where my parents, I'm sure regretted exposing them, ex exposing me to them. And one of them was City of New Orleans which I know he did not write, but played and made famous. And so I stayed awake. I caught that song and apparently I dozed off at one point and then came back online when he did Alice's restaurant. Yeah, I don't quite remember all of it. But the pieces that I do recall actually, where our seats were, it was the space that led onto the stage. So [00:03:00] we got to speak with him briefly before he went on, which I remember being really neat, and always loved his work. He's a fantastic artist.
[00:03:08] Charles: Yeah. That's super cool.
[00:03:09] Victor Gurbo: I'm sure if I was at the show now I would like to think I wouldn't have fallen asleep. I'm sure that I would not have. And that was by no means an insult to Arlo. But, I managed to go on his website and thankfully it went back that far.
[00:03:21] A lot of the links and stuff were glitchy, but I found the show. And, the month was scrambled, but I found the year, so I was happy to do some archeological internet digging and uncovered the show.
[00:03:31] Charles: Yeah. You sometimes find some interesting things out there when you're looking around So you're a bob Dylan fan. I think you're wearing a Bob Dylan shirt right now, aren't you?
[00:03:39] Victor Gurbo: I am. Got that at one of his shows.
[00:03:42] Charles: So when you were 17, and this was 2005 at the Beacon Theater, Victor. You saw your dad and one of your dad's friends took you to the show.
[00:03:53] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. A close friend of my father is a diehard Bob Dylan fan, and I had recently [00:04:00] been diving into his catalog, and I don't recall this either, but apparently when I was a baby and I wouldn't stop crying my father to rock me, would, he would just play whatever CDs he had lying around. And it was the Traveling Wilburys, Congratulations. That one was the only one that stopped me from screaming uncontrollably. He said, you know, my eyes popped open. They kinda started buzzing around the room, and then I would eventually calm down and go to sleep. So I, I've been pre-programmed from a very early age to like, Dylan's work.
[00:04:28] And I remember we were traveling upstate we were going up to the Catskills, uh, as a family. And my dad was flipping through the radio and You're a Big Girl now, came on and I just kind of perked up and I said, what's this? And he said, you know, this is Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. And after that, I stole whatever CDs we had lying around the house, and I would just constantly play 'em on the Walkman. And, when Dylan was coming around, he suggested we go. It was a great show. Amos Lee was the opening act, who I was unfamiliar with at the time, but it was a really great show. And I, I liked his comment where [00:05:00] his first album had just come out and he said, this is the lamest thing I could possibly do on the same stage as Bob Dylan and Merl Haggard, but I'm gonna direct you to the merch station that by my CD.
[00:05:11] And we did, and I'm glad that we did. And Merl was great. I'm really glad that I caught him before he passed. And then Dylan who I have seen probably I was trying to do the math before I got on this podcast, but probably about between 20 and 30 times now. Every time he comes around, I, I try to see him. So, yeah, it was before I knew his entire catalog. So there were certainly songs that, like I had his MTV Live album around the house, but I didn't have his Highway 61 album. So when he played Highway 61, I said to my dad, what's this?
[00:05:42] And he said, oh no, we have to go to the store after this. But actually ironically he played John Brown at that set, which his only studio version was the MTV Unplugged. So I actually knew a song a couple other people didn't. But it was a great set. And that was when he was on the electric piano. Shortly after that, he [00:06:00] transitioned to, he was on the Korg CX3 for a while, which is a Hammond clone. And those sets were great. I love him on that 'cause it just gave all the sets sets this, sort of fun carnival feel for a lack of better words.
[00:06:11] Charles: Yeah, 'cause you make that distinction and some of your best Dylan shows were when he moves to this organ.
[00:06:18] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's before, I think he switched off that in 2014 or 2015. Stets is still great. I'm still thrilled to catch him, but I really liked I called it iPod Shuffle Dylan. His sets are now much more static. The songs consequently much more rehearsed. But I really enjoyed the sort of jam band.
[00:06:36] You never knew what you were gonna get. He usually ended with the same three songs, but he would bust out. When I saw him once he came out and he did tomorrow's not a long time and I don't think he'd done that song in years and hadn't done it years after. And that was just the joy of not knowing what you were gonna get.
[00:06:51] Charles: Yeah. You'd mentioned that. I've had other guests on that kind of, the seeing bands, the unknown is what the excitement, is a big part of it. But then you [00:07:00] also listed Levon Helm. you'd seen him, I think said maybe a couple times, perhaps.
[00:07:05] Victor Gurbo: I think about five or six, I wanna say. I caught him at the Beacon I think two or three times. I should have done more digging. But, I guess saying it's an opposite energy to Dylan is not quite accurate because obviously Dylan's been touring since 1988, so he certainly isn't doing it for his health. He certainly loves being a part of the interaction between the audience and the performance. But I, whenever I bring a friend to catch him live, I always say don't expect him to interact with you. Don't expect what you get with a lot of veteran artists. He's gonna do his new stuff, he's gonna do what he wants to do, and you either accept it or you don't.
[00:07:42] But, Levon Helm, he loved the interaction with the audience, and you could feel that right away. I know that from listening to a couple of documentaries and podcasts and stuff, that when he was touring with Dylan early on, that he apparently quit because of the booing. Cause he just felt it was such a negative interaction between [00:08:00] him and the audience. Which I get from seeing him. He clearly, he loved it. And considering when I caught him after his cancer battle I think he was just so thrilled to be there. And it showed in the music.
[00:08:11] And I also loved that he would always bring artists on stage who, kind of hadn't been around for a while. He had Phoebe Snow come out once, and I think it was right after her daughter had passed away. I don't exactly remember how long before she came on, but she had kind of left the limelight and this was her first performance back on stage, I think in many years. And I remember she shuffled out as soon as he introduced her, and she just said, oh my God, The Beacon. And she seemed so timid and scared and then belted out this version, a piece of my heart that just would put anything to shame. And I certainly think that he had a fondness for artists like himself who kind of were getting a second chance to be there for audiences.
[00:08:53] And, it's funny when you had mentioned in the other podcast, I hadn't thought of that story in a long time. That the last show [00:09:00] that I caught of Levon Helms was at Terminal 5, and I looked it up, it was January 7th, 2010. And he had a throat polyp that came back and he wasn't able to sing for a bit. But he had an incredible backing band with his daughter, Amy Helm, who is an incredible singer in her own right, an incredible performer. And, he started the song and he couldn't get through it, and he just got in the middle of the stage and started dancing and everybody loved it.
[00:09:25] And it's just that showmanship of just pushing through. Yeah, losing him was a real loss, I think, to the Americana world. And, I also caught, he had, it was in Jersey. There was a memorial show for him and an artist that I caught there who was another performer that wish that I had seen more was John Prine. And he got to play there, and, I remember him coming out on the stage and there was an equal, sort of hush of reverence. And, it was, it was great to see him. He is another artist that I, I wish was still here.
[00:09:55] Charles: Yeah, that's so cool, 'cause you can really tell when the performer's connecting [00:10:00] with the audience and they'll cut you a lot of slack too I mean, I've seen one time U2, Bono lost his voice. I think it was the second night they were playing and like halfway through the concert and nobody cared. He told the crowd, will you all help me sing? And everybody cheered. And they knew every word to every, this was like 1984, 85, something like that. Yeah, the place went like totally nuts. It was almost better. It was really something special.
[00:10:26] Victor Gurbo: This is something that I always try to remember as a performer too, which is that the audience doesn't want you to fail. They really don't. So all of those moments when you feel like you're screwing up so bad they're there with you and they want you to feel good, just like they want to feel good.
[00:10:41] So I have a story. When I did my show at Carnegie Hall, there was a moment in one of the songs that we did towards the end, one of the two songs we'd do at the end of every set. And, we had prepared as much as we possibly could, and my lead guitarist pedal board somehow cut power and restarted. He's got this really [00:11:00] sophisticated system and his sound completely cut out.
[00:11:02] And so then he turns to me and he kind of goes, oh no. And then I turn to the keyboard player and I say, you gotta take it. And then he does a solo. And then by the end of when he had gone around the lead guitarist had plugged his system back in, restarted it. He pointed, he said, I got it. And then I signaled to the bassist and the drummer we're going around again. And then he got to take his solo. He went back into the song and the crowd went nuts.
[00:11:23] And afterwards I was talking to somebody, he said, that was scripted, right? And I said, no, no. And I said, oh, that was my favorite part of the show. And I was completely blown away 'cause my heart's in my throat. And I'm like good God. This is the biggest thing that we've done to date and something went wrong. But they like seeing a group of people bounce with it. I think makes it really organic. It reminds you that it's not just you're listening to a track. That it's a real experience and that you're there. Well, those are the best shows.
[00:11:49] Charles: Just get back to Dylan, just for a second, Victor. I wanted to touch on this Terminal 5 show you were at and you pulled down one of the paper notices [00:12:00] from the concert. That's so cool.
[00:12:02] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Dylan, he hates getting his picture taken. He always has. And, I would argue he's allowed. He's Bob. He can do whatever he wants. I saw him last year at Jones Beach. He was part of the Outlaw tour with Willie Nelson, which was a great show. And if they do that again this year, I highly recommend if it comes near you, catch it, ' cause and Willie Nelson's turning what, 93 this year? And I gotta say his performance was out of this world.
[00:12:29] He is certainly older, but again, going back to the audience wants you to succeed, he was doing some, lead work on Trigger and the solo, like it ended, there was nothing wrong, but like the phrase didn't end where it would've if if he had done it the way that he wanted to. And he just kind of looked at the camera and shrugged and we all kinda went like, yeah, well, it sounded good to us and we're thrilled you're here.
[00:12:50] But Dylan always has the cameras turned off. And now of course he's touring and he usually wears a big cowboy hat and an outfit and a suit sometimes as [00:13:00] swords and patterns on them. And now he's wearing a hoodie, pulled up as much as he can. So, he does not want the picture taken. And in his argument is that it's all about the experience of the show. There's one footage online where at one point someone's taking pictures very close to the stage, and he actually stops the show and says, we could either play or pose, which one do you want?
[00:13:20] And he stops and he kinda strikes a pose, lets them take a picture and then goes, okay. And they put the camera away and he goes back to play. And you know, again, it's not what I do as a performer, but I certainly understand that it does make me more present. So, when we walked into Terminal 5, there was a bunch of, just on basic eight and a half by 11 printer paper, at the request of the artist, no photos.
[00:13:40] So, I was eyeing them the whole time. And then the last night as everybody was shuffling out, I pulled one off the wall and I have it framed over my bed and I say it's jokingly, my most authentic piece of Bob Dylan merchandise memorabilia.
[00:13:53] Charles: Yeah, cause I always saved my ticket stubs from concerts and now you rarely get them. So yeah, anytime [00:14:00] you can pick up like some sort of oddity like what you just described is really cool.
[00:14:05] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. When you asked that question on the forum when I checked in my first thought was I don't think I've gotten my hands on a concert ticket in years. And certainly, as a performer half the time as someone attending shows and as someone who is performing, there's many moments when having physical tickets would just make everything so much easier. Although that might be a perfect segue to my Jack White story.
[00:14:27] Charles: Yes, yes, yes. Let's do it. So, under disappointing, and sometimes I don't report disappointing cause I don't wanna be a buzzkill on here. But, you know, I think this is a pretty good one. Jack White Radio City Music Hall. He played a couple of shows September 29th and 30th. This was 2012.
[00:14:45] Victor Gurbo: I was the 29th.
[00:14:46] Charles: This is part of his Blunderbuss tour and yeah so go ahead Victor.
[00:14:50] Victor Gurbo: Sure. So, at that point in my own development as a performer, I was much more interested in acoustic material. And I was [00:15:00] not really plugged into anything current much to my own detriment. And I had a close friend who was very big into Led Zeppelin and a lot of more contemporary rock acts, and we sort of bonded over Jack White because of Jack's covers of Ball and Biscuit and a number of other ones in there. He does some Mississippi John Hurt tunes now and then and when he was coming around for the Blunderbuss tour, if I'm not mistaken, he hadn't played in a while, so it was very exciting and, my friend said, do you want to go? Absolutely. And he said, I'll be in charge of picking up the tickets.
[00:15:32] And so he of course, logged on the morning that they went on for sale, but they all got bought immediately. So he had to go on to StubHub. And he got the tickets. And I live in Bay Ridge and I met him. I was walking our subway stop was in between our houses. And I see him walking down the block and he has the FedEx envelope that the tickets came in. And swinging the envelope animatedly as he is walking down the block. And the first thing I say when I see him, I say my friend, you're gonna lose the tickets if [00:16:00] you do that. And he proceeded to put the envelope on top of his head and he said, I'm not gonna lose the tickets. So, of course you know where the story's going.
[00:16:09] We get on the train, we're speeding along. We get there. We got there early because we wanted to catch the opening act. We wanted to not have any stress or any problems. And we hung out for a while. I think we grabbed a drink. And we get to the front, open up the envelope and there's no tickets. I said, you're joking, right? And he goes, no, no, they're gone. So we immediately like backtracked in the line as if that's where they got lost. And no, we couldn't find them. We ran all the way back, we retraced our steps. There was no luck. And he said, well, don't worry, you know, I bought insurance, I bought the tickets online, we'll be able to get in.
[00:16:41] So, of course he calls up Ticketmaster and Ticketmaster says, well, you got these on StubHub, you gotta deal with StubHub. So we're sitting outside Radio City and he's calling and we'll get somebody on the phone and explain the problem. And there you go. Like, oh, okay, we'll transfer you to blah, blah, blah department. And then, another 20 minutes goes by. Another 10 [00:17:00] minutes goes by. Another 30 minutes go by. We're sitting there and we keep getting transferred to people. And every time it's like, no, please don't leave us. Please tell us what to do. The show is gonna start soon.
[00:17:11] And so we're out there for so long to a point where, my friend says, you see that guy over there with tickets? I say, yeah. And he goes, so here's my plan. I'm gonna jump him and try to take the tickets and the security guard's gonna shoot me. And that way I don't have to deal with the shame and humiliation of losing these tickets, which I said, you know, man, this point I'm up for anything. Go for it.
[00:17:28] And so finally we get through to somebody and they say, you know, oh, well there's an offsite StubHub location, you know, like 20, 30 blocks from where you are. You should go there and they'll help you out. So we hop in a cab and we go there and, there's one other person online in front of us who actually had the same problem as us, ironically. It wasn't as comical as our situation. So then he leaves and person behind the counter is saying like, well, the show's already started, you know, we don't have access to your ticket number. But they flip open this big book and they say, because you have insurance, you can go to any of these [00:18:00] shows under this credit with this amount of money, you know, and we're kind of despondently looking through. And this guy comes out from the back who was our guardian angel for the show. And he says, listen kids, here I have two row BB tickets. I just spoke to the door. He hasn't gone on yet. If you take these and run, don't tell anybody. They're not claimed. Just take 'em and go and enjoy the show. And I said, are you serious? He goes, yeah, leave now. Don't thank, go, go.
[00:18:23] So we hopped in a cab and we bolted back and we get in and we're being led in, I believe it was the first song I thought it was. Of course in my memory of things, it was less songs than they actually did, but we're being led down the aisle. And I remember seeing like where our seats would've been. And we get we're all the way up in front row BB. So there's the orchestra pits in front of us, Michael J. Fox is in front of us, to our right and I saw some members from Saturday Night Live. They were over in the far left. And you could see the spit coming off the stage. You were that close. I spoke to the guy next to us. I think he'd paid about a thousand dollars a [00:19:00] seat for him and his wife to go there. So we went from having crappy tickets, to no tickets, to now all of a sudden we're way up in the front.
[00:19:07] Charles: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Victor Gurbo: And as the show's going on, Jack White he doesn't seem happy. At one point between the songs, he says, what is this? An NPR concert and trying to get everybody to cheer. And of course, I am just so happy to be there. I'm screaming my lungs off. I am so thrilled. And at the same time, there's somebody trying to take pictures in the front and like mid solo, he's stopping and waving his hands stop taking pictures. And I'm like something's weird.
[00:19:34] And again between the songs, he seems upset. He's trying to egg the audience into cheering more. And then he finishes a song, which I'm pretty sure was Ball and Biscuit. According to my notes over there. Yeah, it was and he says, thank you so much. And he storms off stage and, from looking at it online, again, I thought it was a half an hour. It was actually about 50 minutes. But at that point he was doing, I think it was like 22 to 25 song [00:20:00] sets.
[00:20:00] So we were thinking okay. At that point he had an all male band and an all female band. So I thought like, okay, maybe he is switching the bands out. And we're waiting and we're cheering and we're cheering and the lights aren't going back on. And this is weird. This is weird for an encore. It's a weird spot in the set and it's a weird moment. And it's taking much too long. And then all of a sudden the lights come back on and everyone's getting really pissed.
[00:20:27] I think I read afterwards that, I forget which news source it was, but it was angry Hipsters scream, Jack White kills puppies and slams cars in wake of Jack White leaving show early. And I'm sitting there and we're trying to figure out what's going on and what to do if we stay, if we don't, it's looking more and more grim. Michael J. Fox leaves and someone says, is that Michael J. Fox? And then someone else said, is Michael J. Fox the reason why Jack White's leaving? And I said no. We're just gonna cut that rumor. I'm gonna officially put my foot down. This is one of the few moments when [00:21:00] I can change the course of history. Nope, that's not what anybody said.
[00:21:03] And of course the roadies start coming out and they're dressed as like pirates and stuff. It was really bizarre. And yeah, because Jack White's quite the strange showman. And my friend was beside himself and actually refused to get out of his seat. So when the ushers are coming over and they're trying to pull him out, I talked around them and I went to the front and there was a bunch of ushers talking.
[00:21:22] And I said to them like, do you mind me asking what happened? And one of them turned to me and says he didn't like that they weren't clapping. He said, I don't know what to do. I can't make them clap. I can't make people clap. And I remember we're walking out and I'm pissed. And some somebody elbows me and says oh, it's just part of the show with showmanship or whatever.
[00:21:39] I was upset. 'Cause I went from normal seats to no seats, to fighting tooth and nail to claw my way back into that show, burst of luck, better seats than I could ever afford, only to discover that he was unhappy with us. And as a performer, the piece that really hurts me is that it was a sold out show at [00:22:00] Radio City Musical, sold out. Now the thought of playing a sold out show at Radio City Musical is the dream that people love you enough and love your material and connect with what you make and you as an artist enough to, again, for the fellow sitting next to us, a thousand dollars a seat. And I think at one point I actually sat with my friend and did the math.
[00:22:18] I took the number of songs that he did and divided and figured out how much that guy paid per song that night, which, because I'm terrible at math, I do not remember. But, my response would've been if they're not clapping enough in the way that I want them to then I'm the one that needs to figure out what's going on. And again, even from our conversation before the audience wants you to succeed. They want you to do well.
[00:22:40] So, I felt like he turned his back on a full house. And to this day, I still won't listen to his stuff anymore. I respect him. I think he's a great artist, but I don't know. I just got turned off by the whole thing.
[00:22:50] Charles: I did read a little while back that he doesn't like, or maybe doesn't even allow people to have their phones out taking pictures while he is [00:23:00] performing.
[00:23:00] Victor Gurbo: I thought things were happening real fast as things do when they're happening. But certainly it did seem like whoever was taking pictures of him was part of the catalyst for him to storm off. Which Neil Young, I saw Neil Young at, God, where was it? Uh, it is escaping me. It'll come back to me as soon as we're not live. But it was one of his full acoustic sets and I just, I loved he set up the entire stage. It looked like his living room, there was probably about 30 guitars, a pump organ, a piano, and a cigar store, native American statue behind him.
[00:23:31] And he would just tell stories and wander back and forth. He'd grab a guitar, he'd explain why he liked the guitar, but he asked us not to take pictures. And at one point he says, like he says, there's nothing, and I'm paraphrasing, but he said, it's nothing more disappointing than looking out into the audience and seeing all of your dumb faces reflected back from the light from your phone as you're taking pictures of me. He probably didn't say dumb, but that was the subtext.
[00:23:55] And I do understand. I was listening to something earlier today that there is a [00:24:00] phenomenon shows now where if there's a TikTok trending song, that influencers will go only for the ten second clip of the song, so they can film themselves enjoying the show and just kind of get bored and hang out on their phones, the whole rest of the show. And, certainly as a performer, I would probably be alarmed by that if that was my experience.
[00:24:22] That being said, you're Neil Young, you're Jack White. People are coming. They might wanna take a picture to remember it. Again, when you reach a certain stratosphere, you're allowed to do what you want. But certainly with Jack White, it has impacted my ability to appreciate his work. Again, still respect him, still think he's a great artist. But again, I was clapping.
[00:24:41] Charles: You were trying.
[00:24:42] Victor Gurbo: Oh God, I don't think I had ever gone into a show more enthusiastic than that moment. For me, I was just I don't know. I could barely talk the next day. I was screaming so loud, I was happy to be there.
[00:24:54] Charles: You know what's interesting, Victor, is I don't do TikTok or anything. And I took my wife and I took my [00:25:00] daughter this past Friday to see this guy, Maddox Batson. He's a country kid. He's 16 years old. And there are lots of young kids there and stuff, and some older people. And I did not understand why during certain songs there were, ' cause we were right up close to the stage they were filming themselves while he was playing that just this, as you've just described. God, why the heck are they doing that? But now I know.
[00:25:25] Victor Gurbo: Well, It's funny. I was about to say I haven't seen it live, so for all I know it's misinformation or AI or something. And it's nice to know that I said something on your podcast that you could corroborate; that it is true. I am on TikTok. I do listen. I do think that it's important as a performer to see what's going on, even if it's not something that you wanna emulate or can emulate. But I'll frequently hear a song that's trending and I play a specific style of music and I'm limited by my range in the way that I play things.
[00:25:54] And I don't play things the way that they are written to which I go back to a Dylan quote where he said, I never play [00:26:00] my songs the same way twice. ' cause I can either remember, nor am I good enough to play them the same way over and over again. But I'll listen to a song and I'll go, oh, that's really neat. Let me try to figure out if I can cover that. And then I'll listen to the full song and the part that the internet distills is the best part of the song.
[00:26:17] But, it's hard to create thinking about that one snapshot of a moment. What's the one line in your song that's gonna be the one that trends and goes viral. And of course, as performers, we all want that, but it is interesting looking at the other side of the mirror. That there are people there just to appreciate the one moment. I guess the grass is always greener, you know.
[00:26:40] Charles: That's interesting.
[00:26:41] Victor Gurbo: And then there's Jack White leaving, which again, deeply upsets me.
[00:26:44] Charles: Like I was telling you, I saw Jack White last year at this thing called Riot Fest in Chicago. So it's a lot of punk bands and older punk bands and a hodgepodge of bands sorta too, 'cause like the Beach Boys were there just randomly. But yeah, he [00:27:00] played like 13 songs and he didn't play the one song I was looking forward to the Archbishop Harold Holmes, and you know, it was right before Weezer was coming. On, so I was like it's a festival. It'll probably be a shortened thing. And, so I was a teensy weensy, bit disappointed 'cause of the song he didn't play.
[00:27:17] Other than that, I had been trying to see him for a number of years. One time he had broken his finger and he had to cancel the show. And there was some other time where it was like impossible to get a ticket. And that was before StubHub was around. I was grateful to see him, but, it was a little bit on the shorter side, but what are you gonna do?
[00:27:35] Victor Gurbo: My brother caught him at, I think it was the Governor's Ball, and he texted me and he said, this is really gonna bother you. And I said, what? And he said, in between some of the songs, he said, you guys better be clapping because I'll take off. It's almost like he used my show to establish a precedent of, if you guys don't clap enough, I'm gonna leave. And I probably sent a slew of obscenities. That makes sense for the festival. I've also [00:28:00] caught artists who have had to do truncated sets. And again I'm sure I wish the experience didn't happen because I really respect and enjoy his material. But again, I felt so rejected by it, that I was just like, ah, I'm out. I'm out.
[00:28:13] Charles: Yeah, it was too much. We could move on, if you want Victor to your most surprising, which was this Conor Oberst? Is that how you say his name?
[00:28:21] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Yeah. I love Connor Oberst. I've seen him a number of times. I've caught him quite a bit with his main project which is Bright Eyes. I also saw him at Carnegie Hall doing a solo set. I always enjoy his work. But I caught him, what was it I wrote the year down? 'Cause I thought ahead. It was 2008, November 8th, 2008. And that was towards the conception of him and the Mystic Valley Band. Bright Eyes had stopped playing music together.
[00:28:49] I think one of them had kids and, you know, just life does its thing. And he formed this solo project, and that first solo album is still one of my all time favorite albums. And, it really [00:29:00] did feel like, there's many, especially with, you know, I listened to the Alan Lomax collection of I think it's called the Smithsonian like animal, it's all of the, like, they're all dead, is what I'm trying to say around here that usually, with the type of music that I listen to, I am rarely at the forefront of when an artist does something.
[00:29:18] I'm usually sort of studying the backend, which is incredibly valuable, I think as a performer. As an artist, I often talk to people and especially with guitar playing, they say like, oh, I want to play this guitar that's so and so played in 1966. And my response is like, I wanna know what Clapton's playing now. Like after years of amps exploding and feedback, what's the thing that's the most sort of time tested and true thing that you wanna do now? And that's why I think having artists like Dylan who are still around, that we're so lucky to be able to kind of study, not just, you know, how they function, but how to map out a sustained creativity with any of these artists that have staying power.
[00:29:59] But yeah, [00:30:00] so Connor Oberst. It was around when the first album came out and one thing that I really loved was that there was a song that came out on the next album called, I think it's called Ten Women. And he introduced a song by saying, this is something that I'm working on. I hope you guys like it. And that's always a treat when you get to hear someone of that caliber get to, be again at the forefront of it. You get to hear it before it's recorded and refined and polished.
[00:30:23] But, in rock and roll fashion, he was socking down Bud Lights and he was eating those tiny little plastic things of pudding where you peel the lid off. He was really into it. He has this one song about New York City that he played that's a really quick short song, and he kinda looks up. And he says, oh, there's a disco ball here. He says, oh, that's cool. And he says, I'm not playing until this thing is running.
[00:30:43] And there was a pause. 'Cause clearly somebody backstage was going like, oh my God, he's not kidding. And then got it running pretty fast, I gotta say. And and then he pushed forward and he was doing a, I think at one point he ran across all the amps. He was really having fun that night. And that was a real joy to catch. And he played Kodachrome towards the [00:31:00] end of the set, which I don't think he had been doing. That was a real treat to catch too.
[00:31:03] It's always great when you see an artist like that cover someone else's stuff. 'Cause even with shows live with artists that you don't know, I think it's important for acts in every tier to try to include a cover because it allows the audience to judge what you're doing against something that they know and understand and something that's not yours. And you can show like, how you do it, what's your take on it. And a lot of times you'll discover that artists have range that you didn't realize that they had because they're performing their own material. But yeah, that was a great show.
[00:31:33] Charles: I was gonna ask you, Victor, I read, he's like a big Cure fan. Did he ever do covers of the Cure?
[00:31:39] Victor Gurbo: Not that I know of. I should have my brother here. He knows him like I know Dylan's stuff. I'm sure he tell you every set list.
[00:31:46]
[00:32:12] Charles: So, Victor, those are your stories. And I wanted to move into your music. So I didn't know if you wanted to start maybe with your guitar building.
[00:32:21] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. I build under Victor V. Gurbo. Voccali is my middle name. It's my mom's last name. I guess technically It's two last names.
[00:32:28] Charles: Yeah, because the reason why I wanted to start there too was because. You learned how to make guitars because you had ordered a guitar prior to you going to play Battle of the Boroughs, you were like, I want guitar made by, and I forget the guy's name.
[00:32:46] Victor Gurbo: His name is Rick Kelly. And, I discovered him, actually because Bob Dylan was playing one of his guitars. And Dylan did a run of shows. And of course, I forgot to look up the years because I can't retain any of that information. My brain's [00:33:00] running on Windows 95. So, there's not a lot of room in there. But, actually, it was the run of shows where I pulled that poster down on my way out. So he did this run of shows at Terminal 5 and every night I booked, I think he was there, it was like four or five shows.
[00:33:14] I got tickets for every single one and I brought friends to all of them. But the last one. And like a crazy person, I got there way too early and I was at the front, 'cause it was standing room and most of his shows before that and after at least the ones that I could attend, we're seated.
[00:33:29] So it was a nice opportunity to get close. And Dylan mostly plays keys now, but on occasion for like one or two songs, he'll pull out a guitar and he was playing the Stratocaster. And when I got close, I saw that there was an eagle head carved into the Strat horn and you could also see all the wood knots on the guitar.
[00:33:46] And I felt like, oh that's really cool. And serendipity, I'm searching Craigslist 'cause that's what I do. There was a small window when I was starting to get into guitar repair and stuff where I was searching Craigslist for busted guitars and stuff like that. I can tell [00:34:00] you everything up there.
[00:34:00] And I found this guy, he was, it was for something like $8,000. He was selling one of Bob Dylan's rejected guitars. So I called him like, I could ever afford an $8,000 guitar. I couldn't then, I can't now, and I don't see that in my future, nor should I. But, so I called him up on the phone and I said like, well, how did you get this?
[00:34:18] And he said, yes. Well, you know, Bob Dylan purchased three guitars from Rick Kelly at Carmine Street Guitars and he kept two and he sent one back and I bought it and he said, this is what I'm selling it for. And I said, oh, well I really wanna, you know, authenticate what you're saying, you know, can you tell me where to, you know, where to find the shop?
[00:34:34] And he gave me the information and I went down. And Rick Kelly's sitting in the shop and there's two other older guys there. And I walk in and I explain how I found him and he said, you know, $8,000, that's insane. And I said, well, it's Bob Dylan. And he goes, kid, if you like Bob that much, I'll build you a guitar. I'll mail it to him. I'll have him lick the tuners and I'll have him mail it back. And I said are you serious? Is that an option? And they all burst out laughing. And so I ordered one.
[00:34:58] Dylan wanted one of [00:35:00] his guitars because he makes guitars out of the remains of the bones of New York City. When a building's being torn down he will go and pull the support beams out of the dumpsters and he'll make guitars out of them, which is absolutely brilliant. Because the process of making most modern guitars is you dry the wood, basically you start a fire, you put the wood on top of it and you dry it out, which, there is an argument for, of course everything is subjective.
[00:35:24] I saw somebody online made a guitar outta cement and proved that, you know, pickups don't matter. I'm sorry that the body of the guitar doesn't matter. And also this will rope in Jack White that, Jack White's guitar that he played with the White Stripes is made outta plastic.
[00:35:38] So, the front and back are made out of a weird fiberglass material, and there's a maple strip running down the middle of the guitar. And that guitar, in his hands, that thing sounds absolutely fantastic. So, the reason why people gravitate towards vintage guitars is nine times outta 10, they sound better. And that's because the wood has actually aged and solidified in a way that it just sounds great and it's just [00:36:00] something that you just can't replicate. And he's making guitars out of hundred year old wood. So, it's like it's cheating.
[00:36:05] They do sound fantastic. And apparently Dylan was just amused by the fact because his guitar was made out of Chumley's Bar. He thought it was funny that he could have spilled a beer on his guitar in the sixties, and the necks are made out of the remains of the Chelsea Hotel. So, as someone who studies both the music and the writing that came out of that period, I mean, Dylan Thomas, they all hung out at Chumley's.
[00:36:28] And he said sometimes he gets pieces of wood with stuff carved on them that people were just kind of hanging out and doing stuff. So I ordered one and he said it would take about six months. I did the math and it was around from getting accepted that my phase of the contest was gonna happen and it took him four and a half years to put the guitar together. He's very back ordered and I think that he was ambitious with how quickly he thought that he could finish it. And, if you go online and look at forums regarding his work, it's mostly people complaining that they haven't gotten their guitar and somebody posts a picture as soon as it's done and [00:37:00] all of a sudden people are lighting up and they're going crazy.
[00:37:02] But, you know, I kept going by his shop and he would always, every time I'd come, he'd say, oh yeah, come back at the end of the month. It's just in the spray booth. It'll be done just trying to get rid of me. And I'd come back at the end of the month and every single time, as I kept coming back, I realized that my father was a contract worker for a while and he had all these tools in the basement where he lives, and I realized, oh my God, I could do this. So I built my own guitar for the contest which we ended up winning which was a lot of fun.
[00:37:27] There was a brief window where there was a company that, ' cause again, because I like Jack White so much, that bought the patent to make, so he plays, it is an old company called Airline that made these. Bizarre guitars using a fiberglass top and bottom and a wood beam that runs down the middle. So it's a sort of semi hollow body, but there's a very weird tone that comes out of the plastic. So, it's really something that's, I would argue, a challenge to replicate. And the company did a Kickstarter thing and then started, and they advertised it as an intermediate [00:38:00] level project. I think that also was a generous statement.
[00:38:04] I made every possible mistake you could make putting that thing together. I replaced everything. I wired it all by hand. And since then I've been making my own. I do the same thing as Rick Kelly. I find old pieces of wood and I recycle them. And I toyed with the idea of doing it more professionally. But at the end of the day, I decided that I wanted to focus more on playing music and doing my day job.
[00:38:26] 'Cause just like with any like art project it takes your full attention and full time to make it into something that really makes you enough money to do it all the time. But, I still make them, I make about four or five a year. And I'll sell them privately or I'll give them to a friend who's going out on a tour or something like that.
[00:38:41] And it's a lot of fun. I encourage everyone who plays music to, within reason. Take your guitar apart, see how it works. Because I've definitely felt like that I've become a better player from understanding what goes into the instrument that I play. And I've certainly found ways to modify things. I can show you, [00:39:00] although I believe this is all audio, so there's no point.
[00:39:02] Charles: Yeah, you have a whole bunch of guitars hanging behind you.
[00:39:05] Victor Gurbo: Oh, yeah. I call it my wall of shame.
[00:39:08] Charles: But Victor so you make this guitar, and this is like 2013, right? And you're going to this Battle of the Boroughs, an NPR green space. It sounded like where I looked into this, and I don't know how much of this is true, but it's a street level like broadcast studio in New York City.
[00:39:25] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. NPR does a lot of their events and I think a lot of the recording over there. I actually saw Connor Oberst there be interviewed and do a couple of songs. Yeah, a lot of great artists go through there.
[00:39:35] Charles: Because it looks like it holds like maybe 250 people or so. It's a small little spot.
[00:39:41] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. That sounds right.
[00:39:42] Charles: And you guys won best band in Brooklyn.
[00:39:45] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Which is all subjective. But for a brief moment, I could say that was the case. Yeah, so the way that the contest worked is they had every borough compete. So they had one day of playing music with judges. And then after that, five bands were picked and, you could [00:40:00] vote online. And then all the boroughs competed at the end.
[00:40:03] So we won best band in Brooklyn which really surprised me at the time because there were groups that we were competing with that had a lot more followers online than we did. So it certainly was a sort of grassroots operation. And on the final phase of the contest, we got effectively second place. We had the most votes in the room. But the Villalobos Brothers from Manhattan they won the contest and they are another band absolutely worth checking out. We did a show with them, think the following year at the Mercury Lounge.
[00:40:31] But yeah, it was because of that show, we were invited to play the BAM Cafe which is at Brooklyn Academy of Music. They were doing this series. They have the smaller stage, and then they would invite more emerging artists to come play. And, that was, up until Carnegie Hall, I would say that was probably the biggest show that we did. But Yeah, that was a fun time.
[00:40:49] Charles: Cause I was gonna ask you, Victor, I was looking trying to piece together your recordings and such that are available. And so like this Battle of the Boroughs is [00:41:00] 2013. And then do you release then this Victor V. Gerbo and Company in 2017. So was there anything in between there?
[00:41:09] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. I mean, we've been, consistently doing shows in New York City. Since then, the band lineup has changed a bit. I still have the keyboard player that I worked with for that show. For some reason he still tolerates me, and thank God that he does, he is incredibly talented. His name is Jason Laney, and he has a couple of great projects. He also plays with Mad Mag. He also plays with a band, Scotia Rose, very talented. And he's been very helpful in arranging the material for a full band. But we've done every venue under the sun here.
[00:41:37] And we were toying with the idea of recording. We changed the itinerary around did a couple more shows. We put that album out and, then did a couple more shows. And then the real white whale that ended up actually coming into being was, it was in 2019, an artist approached me, Phil Robinson. He said I work with Room Full of Sky. I wanna book a show at Carnegie Hall.
[00:41:58] And I said, oh, you're outta your [00:42:00] mind. I said there's no way that they're gonna do that. And he said like, can I send your stuff over? Can I put you up front of the pitch? And I said, oh yeah, sure, go ahead. It's not gonna work, but you can do it. And he comes back to me and he says, yeah, we got approved to do it. To which I said, okay, that's equally as insane. Something's going to go wrong. And then of course the pandemic hit. And the show got knocked outta rotation. To which I said well, of course it wasn't gonna happen. And, he keeps saying, quit being so negative, you've wheeled this into being.
[00:42:24] And then as soon as the restrictions were lifted, that was the next big show that we did. I mean there was certainly, we played the Highline Ballroom. We played a number of larger tier venues in between, back in yee olden days during the contest, and now. But that certainly was sort of the crown jewel so far. And because of that, we ended up doing a small stint in Austin, Texas.
[00:42:44] And once we came back, during the pandemic, I recorded quite a bit with another Bayridge artist by the name of Mark Caserta. And he reached out to me at the start of when things started going bad and he said listen I had never actually played with him. I met him on [00:43:00] Craigslist. I traded a guitar that I made for an old guitar of his. He had an old Danelectro guitar that I'd always had my eye on. And so he contacts me and we did a swap and we kept in touch. I listened to some of his projects. I'd go out to some of his shows.
[00:43:12] And as soon as the lockdown started, he said, Victor you know, all of my projects, all the songwriters that I work with. They're not doing anything right now. If you send me a recording, I'll play along to it. I just wanna feel like I'm performing with another artist. And I was in the process of slamming my head against the wall being in isolation, and I said, oh, that's probably a better use of my time. So I recorded something on my iPhone and I sent it to him and he bounced it back, and by the end of the lockdown we had over 100 recordings that we were sitting on.
[00:43:39] And then there was something called the NPR public Song Contest. They were looking for public domain covers of songs that had just exited copyright. And were now available for artists to use freely. And we had a version of a Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, which is an Irving Berlin tune. And we sent that in and Paul Cavalconte played it on new standards [00:44:00] and we took stock and went okay, maybe we got something there.
[00:44:03] And we mixed, Mark mixed, I should say which he's gotten very good at working with the weird way that I record things and the weird way that I exist. And we ended up putting out an album on vinyl of a selection of the songs that we created during that period. And we're still going through them and we're probably gonna do another volume sometime soon, but now I've started doing shows with him.
[00:44:24] So it's just a duo. It's just me on acoustic guitar or I have an omni chord now, so I can get a little weird with things. And Mark plays guitar. He plays mandolin, he plays bass. He plays everything. So the two of us have started doing smaller shows and we're toying with the idea of taking it outta state. It's much easier to take two people on the road than it is to take five. I gotta find shows that pay a little bit more to bring the whole gang out.
[00:44:47] Charles: Was that Outrun the Invisible Man? That has that song on there?
[00:44:51] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Yeah. Well that's the name of the album. I'm a big fan of not naming your album after a song. 'cause I feel like it directs people too much [00:45:00] to listen to this one. This is the best one. And I want people to make their own decisions on which is the best one.
[00:45:05] ' Cause the second song on the album, which is Dreaming and Dancing, I thought that was the strongest song on the record. And we made an ad using that. And then once we started sending it to radio stations they played a number of songs that I wasn't expecting anyone to click with. I thought that they were more filler. And I'm glad that I didn't name it after that, because now we do those songs more.
[00:45:26] Charles: 'Cause I was also listening to the song and I watched the video, The Water is Wide, which which features Mark, how do you say his last name?
[00:45:33] Victor Gurbo: It's Caserta. Caserta.
[00:45:34] Charles: Yeah. And then Michelle..
[00:45:36] Victor Gurbo: Siracusa.
[00:45:37] Charles: That's a really cool song. And the video's interesting too, 'cause you guys are like sitting in a bathtub with water in it.
[00:45:43] Victor Gurbo: Well, it's, it's funny is that's an old folk song. I love taking old songs and sort of doing my own spin on them. And Mark worked with Michelle for a number of years before him and I hooked up. And it was during the release of the last album, we had a couple of tracks that we were playing [00:46:00] with. And we'll use sort of the bones of whatever we did during the pandemic, but we'll add some stuff and we'll clean them up and if there's a part that didn't quite work. At that point I had the long COVID beard and was going insane. So there's certainly things that need tweaking.
[00:46:13] And he said, this would sound really cool if we brought on another vocalist, I know Michelle, please can we take her? And I said, absolutely. If she wants to by all means.
[00:46:21] And so we did this song and, she gives us a call and says that she has this idea for a video about us assembling paper boats and pushing them back and forth, and the whole story is told through that. And I said that sounds like a big project. How do you wanna do that? He goes, oh, if we just have a bathtub, we can pull it off. And I said, okay. I said, do we need, he's no, let's just get our iPhones and jump into it. And I said, what is Mark gonna do? He says, oh, we'll just have him sit in the tub.
[00:46:46] Yeah, I think it's a great example. It was a lot of fun to do. Also that water was really cold. We have some B-roll stuff of us trying to get adjusted and, ah, good lord. I went first and I said this is bad. Mark said, it can't be that [00:47:00] bad. And it was as bad as you could imagine. But one must suffer for their art, as they say. And I think most of these tracks are done on garage band, and I'm sure a professional recording engineer will scoff at them, but most people listen to stuff on you know, these headphones that I have right now or through the speaker of their iPhone.
[00:47:19] Yes, there is a level of perfectionism that one can get that you really need a professional for. But I think if anyone's ever thought about recording their stuff, laptop now has a built-in version of whatever software.
[00:47:33] Charles: Because when I look at your songs like on iTunes you do in parentheses say it's a home recording, which I listened to. And yeah, like you were saying, to me it sounds great. I can't tell the difference, you know, listening to it casually. I guess my point is if you're putting it out there, I don't wanna say as a warning, but where it was created. But again it sounds perfect. It sounds wonderful.
[00:47:55] Victor Gurbo: I chatted quite a bit with Mark about if that was the right thing to do. [00:48:00] 'Cause I do think there are some people, I talk with a couple of people that run playlists or whatever, and they don't even bother listening and they just say, oh, it's a home recording. That's not for us. But on the other side of the coin, there is a whole narrative behind it. And I think a good piece of art should exist in and of itself, that the narrative behind it can help you appreciate it. But at the end of the day, you shouldn't need it to enjoy it.
[00:48:22] And certainly for shopping that record around. There was a huge story behind how it was made and what it is, and it gave people on radio stations and stuff, something to talk about in addition to what the subject matter was. So, I don't regret giving that warning as you put it.
[00:48:38] But I think in the face of a lot of very mechanical, sanitized material, there was something very pleasant about giving people something that like, yeah, you'll hear the microphone get tapped once or twice. You'll hear there's one moment when we're recording, it's a song called I Missed You All the Same. I always, when I record I give Mark the, [00:49:00] so instead of like, just waiting for the moment, I'll record the dead air, just so he has everything that he could work with if he wants to use it in the space. And I was playing harmonica and I was just doing it at the tail end. So I pressed record and I was listening to the song and I was trying to kinda make some mental notes and I realized, oh my god, the part that I wanted to record is coming up. So I clicked open the harmonica case and started playing, and the click's still in the recording, and I told him like, oh, the click is said, no, it's real. Leave it in.
[00:49:25] So I mean, that's part of it is that these are a response to being isolated. It's an attempt to be human in a time when we were separated by screens and it's sort of intentionally released as something that's organic in an era when everything is now a string of code.
[00:49:45] Charles: To me when I read that I did not really think about the quality. It was almost that I can picture you at home not even knowing what your home looks like, but like you were just saying, it's a realistic image. You and the musicians playing almost [00:50:00] live, which is your latest album recording.
[00:50:03] Victor Gurbo: Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big fan of it being real and a lot of my favorite tracks especially from the 1960s, they're live. To me it's supposed to be a capture of a performance. And I know I also love the Sergeant Pepper album. So, I'm aware that a lot can be created in the studio and there's magic. But both things can be true at the same time. And one thing that I really love about Bob Dylan is that he records this stuff. All of his albums are live. I enjoy playing live. I find it very satisfying.
[00:50:32] And we were lucky enough that, that when we did this show at Cafe Wha? that the sound engineer could offer us the multi-track. So I immediately said to Mark like, all right, let's decode this, figure out what the tracks mean and let's see if we can slap it together, and I think one of our best shows to date and I'm really happy with how it sounded. I think two songs are present from our 2017 album, and those songs have changed a bit.
[00:50:53] One of the things that I love about playing music is that the songs don't have to be static. All art does not have to be static. [00:51:00] But playing music, you get to rewrite your material. I really enjoy playing songs live because it allows me to explore them and to feel out the poetry of them. And again, the great thing is that you can change it the next time you play it.
[00:51:13] Charles: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:14] Victor Gurbo: And this is a snapshot of of how we sound now. And I'm happy that I was able to get it out there for people to listen to on streaming.
[00:51:21] Charles: Yeah, it came out March 11th, 2026 here and, called Co Live 2025.
[00:51:29] Victor Gurbo: Yep.
[00:51:29] Not my most creative title, but it does get the jobdone.
[00:51:33] Charles: You know what it's about, right?
[00:51:34] Victor Gurbo: I'm not misleading anyone.
[00:51:36] Charles: It's got eight songs on it, Victor. Two covers or maybe there's one I didn't recognize as a cover.
[00:51:42] Victor Gurbo: No, there's two. Rollin Tumbling is a cover. Our arrangement is different, but Bob Dylan did a version of that on Time Out of Mind, which really stuck with me. So it's geared after his version with some changes to the structure. And we do a cover of Folsom Prison Blues, which we spend a [00:52:00] lot of time trying to figure out what covers to do. And we wanna be able to play something that anybody might know that someone who's from Gen Z might be able to pick up and someone who's a baby boomer might be able to listen to and know the song.
[00:52:13] And Johnny Cash, is one of those art, I don't know anybody that hates Johnny Cash. Even people that don't like country music. There's just something so cool about, him and his story and his persona and everything. And that one just clicked. And my lead guitarist, he was a session musician at the China Club in the 1980s, and he is a real shredder. And he is fun to have in there because I love working with artists who have their own personality and will pull the songs in a way that I'm not expecting or thinking because if you leave me by myself, I'm gonna sound like the physical limitations of my playing, and also the conceptual limitations of my playing.
[00:52:50] And having someone involved who is going to do something that I, in my wildest dreams would never think of incorporating, [00:53:00] on occasion have to say okay, no, that's too much the antithesis of my vision for this. But nine times outta 10, you're gonna get something that, again, playing with a band, it's a communal piece of art. I write the songs, I write the chord structures to them. I write the melodies, but the guys are the ones that really make it into something special. And again, everybody knew that song. Nobody hated it. Cause again, I'm sure there's somebody out there, but I challenge you to find me somebody that just hates Johnny Cash.
[00:53:28] Charles: I, have not run across anyone.
[00:53:30] Victor Gurbo: I found people that don't like The Beatles. Those are fighting words, but at the same time, I get that even a little bit more. You got a photograph of him flipping off the camera. You got a picture of him eating birthday cake high in a bush. I mean, he's a fun guy.
[00:53:42] Charles: So for the album, you guys obviously. Plan that right? At this Cafe Wha?
[00:53:47] Victor Gurbo: Oh yeah. Once we knew it was happening. Yeah, and I did my best not to remind everyone that it was being recorded, because I knew that would mentally program everyone too.
[00:53:57] Charles: That's a good strategy.
[00:53:59] Victor Gurbo: Yeah, [00:54:00] yeah. Because, I do the same thing. It's that old adage, if you ever take a picture of somebody, like it's amazing once you say smile, instinctively you don't look like you half the time. So I wanted to catch that. I wanted them to be prepared enough, which, you know, we were. But at the same time, it still needed to be a live show, and, um, I didn't wanna psych nobody out.
[00:54:19] Charles: That's a good strategy. Right now, yeah, we're gonna play Burning the Manor Down.
[00:55:43] [ Burning the Manor Down by Victor Gurbo ]
[00:59:31] Charles: How do people reach you? is there anything you'd like to plug or talk about, before we sign off?
[00:59:37] Victor Gurbo: Of course. Yeah. We have this new record out, and if you like this track, please you can follow us on social media. Tag is Victor V. Gerbo on everything. And also, if you'd like the story about our home recording sessions we still have copies on vinyl for sale which you can pick up on our website. And yeah I got shows coming up. I'm in the process of having a number of stuff booked, which [01:00:00] will be on my website shortly.
[01:00:02] Charles: Victor, thanks again for being on the podcast and, yeah, everybody check out Gerbo and Company Live 2025.
[01:00:10] Victor Gurbo: Thank you so much for having me here.