Victor V. Gurbo, a homebred Brooklynite, recently released a rip-roaring live album of contemporary folk music. Gurbo & Co. Live 2025 was recorded at Cafe Wha? in New York City in November 2025, with his full electric band lighting up the storied stage. The live album features six Gorbo originals, bolstered by two classic folk-blues covers. Gurbo & Co Live 2025 channels the timeless spirit of the 60s with a lively contemporary twist in his songwriting and storytelling, done well enough to elicit an approving nod from his predecessors.
Gorbo opens by describing the characters and setting of a city restaurant street scene as closing time rapidly approaches in “The Bartender Has Been Drinking.” Perhaps some of those same players were captured in the brief but whimsical lyrics that chronicled a one-night stand in “You Are Forgettable.”
You are erasable
Every part of you replaceable
But your features are still traceable
But mean nothing to me“You Are Forgettable” by Victor V. Gurbo
A guitar maker, Victor V. Gorbo (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica) assembled a technically sound band of co-conspirators. Mark Caserta (bass guitar), Jason Laney (piano, organ, vocals), Kenny Lee (electric guitar, vocals), and Evan Sanyour (drums, percussion) combine to convey a variety of styles with skilled acumen.
Serving up live music since 1959, Cafe Wha? was an appropriate backdrop for Gorbo’s live recording. Bob Dylan’s first New York City performance took place here in 1961. Like Dylan, Gurbo began playing his music on the streets of New York. Since then, Gurbo has dreamed of performing at the historic venues where icons like Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, and Richard Pryor honed their craft at Cafe Wha? in the late 1960s.
It’s fitting that Gurbo included “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” in this live set. Originally recorded by Hambone Willie Newborn in 1929, the song has been recorded by several esteemed artists, including Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Cream, and, in 2006, Bob Dylan. Gurbo’s interpretation opens with a brief traditional slowed-down Delta blues intro. It quickly transitions into a fast-paced, foot-stomping walking-bass foundation fortified by scintillating guitar and organ solos.
Another standout is Laney’s piano intro on “Burnin’ the Manor Down,” which serves up Gurbo’s storytelling on a silver platter. From there, the band urgently chugged right into the classic “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash to close out the album on a high note.
This is not your father’s folk music. Gorbo & Co. collaborate to deliver a power-packed, modern-folk update of blues, ragtime, swing, roots, and Americana. Gurbo & Co. Live 2025 at Cafe Wha? is real and raw, a rare rejection of the algorithmic song structure of today’s digital world.
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