Victor V. Gurbo Channels Young Dylan at Cafe Wha?
New album, Gurbo & Co. Live 2025, out now
2026 marks not only Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday, but also 65 years since he came to New York City at 19 and performed at the iconic Cafe Wha?.
“A subterranean cavern, liquorless, ill lit, low ceiling, like a wide dining room with chairs and tables,” Dylan wrote of the club in his book Chronicles: Volume One.
Brooklyn’s Victor V. Gurbo, folk-rock songwriter and guitar maker, sees himself as a music anthropologist who creates music with the rich history of his New York environment through his compositions. And with his latest album, Gurbo & Co. Live 2025, he retraces his roots by capturing the essence of this hallowed ground in a rapidly changing Manhattan landscape on a stirring live set that evokes Depression-era city life in the modern era.
“My idols played at Cafe Wha?,” Gurbo explains. ”It was the first venue Bob Dylan played when he arrived in New York City in 1961. Performing there was a privilege, and as someone who studies the craft, I feel lucky that a venue like Cafe Wha? is still alive, thriving, and a place where you can hear original music.”
In addition to Cafe Wha? — which he recently played earlier this month —Gurbo, who is also an accomplished guitar maker, has previously performed in such iconic venues as City Winery, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall.
Gurbo & Co. Live 2025 is out now.
- Victor V. Gurbo Channels Young Dylan at Cafe Wha? - June 24, 2026
- Rock & Roll Globe’s 25 Best Albums of 2026 So Far - June 23, 2026
- Artists Remember Clive Davis - June 22, 2026
You May Also Like
-
May 24, 2019 -
August 26, 2018 -
August 13, 2020
