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.

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