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Gathering of the Vibes August 2009

Matt Turk and the Hobo Caravan played the 2009 Gathering of the Vibes at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT. Drummer Kevin Hupp, who appears on Iggy Pop's new record and has been playing with Turk for a decade was joined by Fred Gillen Jr. on bass, vocals and harmonica, Bill Harris on sax, flute and percussion and Gary Schreiner on keyboards and accordion. During a 75 minute set that ran teh gamut from Turk originals "Silver Ring," "Broadway," Hobo Boy," and "It Really Matters" to covers of the Stones "Sweet Virginia" and a solo performance of Garcia/Hunter's "High Time", there were cat calls from the audience for The Hour's "Night and Fog", a gem from deep in Turk's catalogue. Buddy Guy's "Messin' with the Kid", Mandolin Caravan instrumental "L.O.G.", Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and a powerful version of "Stranger" rounded out a great set that was filmed and recorded for posterity.

Matt & Fred at GOTV09 Photo: Simon Feldman

G&T Live on Night Rhythms with Catherine Michaels

After volunteering for Clearwater on a sunset Hudson River sail at the Great River Revival and singing with accordionist Rob Morsberger, G&T jettisoned the sloop with Turk rowing. Next, G&T met up with Catherine Michaels for Night Rhythms, weekdays 7pm-midnight on 100.7 WHUD. There was much good humor and live performances of "Devils Bluff," "It Really Matters" and others on this exciting show.

Mandolin Sessions

Matt Turk appears on mandolin on three current Hudson Valley releases: Glass of Desire by Carolann Solebello, produced by Fred Gillen Jr. at Woody's House, Highway Bouquet by Susan Kane, produced by Billy Masters (Suzanne Vega) and Big Green Hope Machine, Hope Machine's second release.

An Irishman's Halloween

Matt Turk and Curtis travelled this Halloween on the central west coast of Ireland. Days were spent enjoying incredible scenery - the mountains of Dingle, the lakes of Killarney, the lonely windswept Aran Islands, the Burren and more. Driving on the left and looking to the right, eating the freshest food from local farms and drinking Guinness. Some pubs were compromised. In Doolin, Galway, Inish Meian, Killarney, Ennis, Dingle and more, the two listened and joined in the all night music sessions.

Musical highlights included The Hour's "Clearwater" and Matt Turk originals "Silver Ring", "Dog Story" and "Hobo Boy".

Irish folks were continually pointing out how great the American music and culture is as Curtis and Turk glided through an American classic songbook that included Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" and Pete Seeger's "Take it from Dr. King", Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train", Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" and Bessie Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out". Mike Scott's "Fisherman's Blues" and The Band's "The Weight" also made their way into the repertoire.

More about this Ireland adventure coming soon to the journal.

Above: Singin' their hearts out at McGann's in Doolin. Photo by Laurie

Montreal Quebec's Valmor Kurol has listed "Endurance," and Washington Arms, with lyrics, in his Antarctic discography at Antarctic Circle.

Kurol is a collector of Antarctic-themed music interested in Turk's motivation writing "Endurance." Matt shares, "I was going through a very challenging time in a personal relationship. After an afternoon at the Natural History Museum exhibit on Shackleton, I was inspired by Shackleton's devotion to his crew and his ability to rescue them against all nautical and natural odds and drew upon that inspired commitment in my composition. And relationship. At least that's a part of it. Shackleton was an unbelievable man."

Matt Turk will join Jenny Murphy, Leo Leibeskind and the 12 Miles North Children's Community Chorus in support of Pete Seeger's new Singalong Memoir – Where Have All The Flowers Gone – with special guest Pete Seeger, in concert Thursday December 10, 7-9pm in Dobbs Ferry, NY at the South Presbyterian Church, 343 Broadway. A book signing and hootenanny will follow the show. www.rivertownsguide.com

Turk toured Israel this August with a week of solo performances in Tel Aviv, Karmiel, Jerusalem, Ra'anana and Beit Shemesh. Percussionist and good friend Tomer Tzur, founder of New York's Sway Machinery, joined Matt for his Tel Aviv performance. The shows were mostly unplugged with some new material from Matt's upcoming solo release due out later this fall.

G&T were live on the air at WNJR at Wililam Jefferson College with David Singer, WORT in Madison with John Fabke and KUMD in Duluth with Maija Morton. In Sheboygan, Gillen & Turk met Music Integrated Kiosk Environment (known as M.I.K.E.), the mobile recording unit and stage at the Kohler Arts Center.

Like a 21st Century Gladiator, Todd Rundgren conquered the Tarrytown Music Hall October 11. Gillen & Turk opened with a crisp set featuring sweet harmonies, washboard grooves, chicken picking, mandolin and blues harmonica; and it was all in support of G&T's well crafted songs. One highlight of the show was audience participation and skat singing during "Satchmo." "It Really Matters" had an extended solo/jam that evoked the rhythms and sounds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Gillen's "Devils Bluff" was a home run. Fred, the hardest working man in Hudson Valley show business split to perform in Beacon at the Dissident Folk Festival shortly after G&T's set. Matt met Todd and is pictured with friend Anna Leinbach.

Matt Turk returns to the Coachmen homeless shelter in White Plains for his Story Arts residency. April 2, 2009 at 6pm there will be a public performance at the Coachmen presenting Story Arts, combining acting, music, dance, design and video. "and if one of these kids is Satchmo, how will we ever know?"

Turk continues his Friday night residency at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, providing music for their renowned worship services. March 15, 2009 at 5pm is the Fourth annual BJ Musicians Concert featuring BJ's resident musicians Pharoah's Daughter's Basya Shechter, Daphna Mor, Uri Sharlin, Jessie Reagan, Gene Carr, Amanda Monaco, Rabbi Roly Matalon and Hazzan Ari Priven. In years past the concert has drawn up to 700 people. For information please visit http://bj.org

Music composed and scored by G&T is on the Wyoming Channel. Visit thatswy.com to listen, watch and plan your next eco-vacation.

JP, Bloody Mary and Rock hosted Joe Duraes and Matt Turk to perform and hang live on WARY, the voice of Westchester Community College. SInging and talking about the Hudson River, mortality, food, love and everything else that came up in our quips and quirks including calls that came in from you, Duraes and Turk jammed for a couple of hours and had an absolute blast.

On May 2, 2009, Anthony DaCosta, KJ Denhert, Fred Gillen Jr., Steve Kirkman, Kathleen Pemble and Matt Turk sold out The Arts Exchange at 31 Mamaroneck Ave. in White Plains, NY for the "Tribes Hill Songbook" Concert in honor of Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday. Mary Shustack inked a fine cover story for the Journal News entitled, "They keep the circle unbroken." WFUV's John Platt was present on the air and in Mary's article, all of which greatly helped fill the Arts Exchange with singing and song. Contributing guest musicians included The Ya Ya's Catherine Miles, Curtis, Eric Puente and Chandra Lee Mann. The Tribes Hill Songbook will soon be appearing on line, followed by a published book for your voice, piano and guitar due out later this year. tribeshill.com

Recently Matt Turk was contacted by Blues Traveler Archivist Dave Mallick regarding early Blues Traveler shows involving The Hour. Initially the recording of the 11.5.88 Cathedral Cafe show was discussed relating to musicians involved in the evening that is apparently one of Blues Traveler's first ever recorded that has surfaced. Thanks to Dave Mallick and the Blues Traveler archive community, The Hour's performances at Cafe Poppolini, Speak Easy and Wetlands have also surfaced including a Speak Easy acoustic show with John Popper. We are very grateful to have these recordings.

Many of you are wondering what happened with Gillen & Turk and MSG's show NYC Soundtracks. We are as well. We were on the show, in the competition and in the round of 16 and, like you, looking forward to this past Sunday's episode. If you saw Sunday's episode you heard that Gillen (who's name was misspelled as Gill) & Turk "got a touring gig" and could no longer be on the show. This was news to us. We toured back in May and June and will now be pretty local until November when we hit the midwest again. We were pretty shocked to hear on television that we were currently on tour. You'd think that someone from MSG and NYC Soundtracks would have informed us we were off the show because of our touring schedule before they broadcast it to their viewers. Considering that two days after that 8/10 show was aired we were in NYC again playing in the subway at 125th and 8th, the story they told of us "being on tour" seems a bit ridiculous. You'd think they would have at least checked our website which shows our gig schedule before they broadcast this. We would have appreciated a courtesy phone call before the show was broadcast. We would have appreciated and welcome a public apology from MSG and NYC Soundtracks. As it is we have received a private apology from production and have been offered a short list of possible opportunities (gigs, radio appearances, MSG website coverage, etc...) for MSG to make this up to us. Did someone just screw up or was there some other reason we were pulled from the show? We are trying to get to the bottom of this question and will keep you informed. To be honest we weren't too excited about the contest aspect of the show, but felt honored and flattered to be in a show with Gibran Soul, Matt Nichols, Dorian Spencer, Trevor Exter, and all of the other artists, some of whom we know from the subways or from their music careers outside the subways...

Many of you know how much we enjoy playing in places like 125th and Lex, in the subway. You know how grateful we are to be a part of Music Under New York and to work with the M.T.A., New Yorkers, and music community. We will continue to play in the subway, our freedom of speech intact, protected by the First Amendment.

When we were kids, one of the first things we saw on MTV was "Video Killed a Radio Star." For anyone who thought reality TV is real, consider our current experience and we challenge songwriters to write the new song, "Gillen & Turk killed Reality TV"

KUSP's Mike Pierce showing his copy of Backs to the Wall during G&T's June 13, 2008 visit. Everyone's glad Mike is no longer doing the graveyard shift. And we loved seeing KJ Denhert's poster nearby, made us feel at home.
The session is soon to be in the KUSP archives.