reCAP :: Hudson Valley Beer Week ft. Backwoods Jupiter :: 2014.08.09
Commemorating the end of Hudson Valley Beer Week, Garcia’s hosted a Saturday night celebration featuring the largest tap takeover in the Hudson Valley, accompanied by Backwoods Jupiter, a band that promised to play Bob Dylan’s mystical masterpiece, Desire, in its entirety. What ensued was the largest Dylan takeover these parts had seen since Mr. Dylan performed at the grand re-opening of the Capitol Theatre on September 4, 2012.
I anticipated that Backwoods Jupiter would dutifully play Desire in order from “Hurricane” to “Sara.” But they surprised us all by kicking the show off with the next to last track of Desire, “Black Diamond Bay.” It was a bold move that opened the doors of possibility. The leader of the band, Julie Corbalis, was smiling and singing, and strumming and swaying with her acoustic guitar, thrilled to be channeling this, and other Dylan gems all night long. On the second tune, Matt Turk, co-lead singer and lead guitarist, shredded his way through a savory “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.” From the land of the Delta Blues, Backwoods Jupiter dashed off to the romantic ocean paradise of “Mozambique.” This gig was bursting with old-timey inspiration, a throwback to Dylan’s barnstorming days with the Rolling Thunder Revue circa 1975.
A striking “Visions of Johanna” was rendered in that thin, that wild Mercury sound that Dylan invented for Blonde on Blonde. Matt Turks attentive singing was Dylanesque without the clichéd nasally whine applied by most Dylan imitators. Turks is a talented multi-instrumentalist who’s well versed in a wide range of Americana, but he happens to resemble the rebellious hipster who shook up the folk world at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The standout performance of band’s opening set was “One More Cup of Coffee.” A tall, mysterious gentleman in a jean jacket joined the group to sing lead vocals and blow some harp on “Coffee.” On this evening, a few members of the original Backwoods Jupiter had other touring commitments, but the makeshift group hit all the right notes and harmonies during “One More Cup of Coffee.” Strumming madly center stage, redhead Deni Bonet wailed in the style of Scarlet Rivera. All night, her efforts stoked the fire and solidified the Desire sound. Julie Corbalis electrified the crowd by singing the story of the “Hurricane” to close the set. She channeled Dylan’s emphatic singing with hand gestures as if we were in a time warp, as if Garcia’s was another intimate and impromptu stop on the Rolling Thunder Revue.
As for the Hudson Valley beer, I sampled a few and settled into a pint of Rushing Duck Naysayer Pale Ale as set two commenced with the mother of all iconic tunes, “Like a Rolling Stone.” It was a thrill to catch the epic gangster tale, “Joey,” in the third spot of the set. Julie and Matt traded verses, and the band tried to end the song after four verses, but Julie kept the song alive for verse five. No Dylan lyrics shall be omitted on a night like this. A chap named Elliot joined the band to sing and play acoustic guitar on “From a Buick Six.” The band was now tastefully stretching out tunes as if they’d been down this road so many times before. And then came the song that that turned me into a Dylanhead when I was a student at SUNY New Paltz, “You’re a Big Girl Now.” Dylan anthems have a transcendent quality, and this exquisite number sent me reeling back to that first time I heard Blood on the Tracks.
“Sara,” a love song like no other, was the final Backwoods Jupiter performance from Desire. The band dipped into the Traveling Wilburys playbook and ripped through “Handle With Care,” the only post 1975 number played amongst the twenty-one tunes performed. The show ended with the soulful sing-along, “I Shall Be Released.” This concert was much more than a band paying tribute to a great album. It was a musical revival rooted in another time and place in America, a time when Dylan was driven by the passion of the music he was creating in collaboration with his peers. For those of us too young to have experienced the Rolling Thunder Revue, Backwoods Jupiter gave us a glimpse into that fleeting magic at Garcia’s.