Yuri Turchyn

Pat Guadagno & Tired Horses

For sixteen years around Memorial Day weekend, Yuri was an integral part of Pat Guadagno and Tired Horses Bobfest, a reunion for some of the best working musicians– New Jersey’s finest– to celebrate Bob Dylan’s birthday and music.

Pat Guadagno brought the band together, Tired Horses, but they were anything but tired. Their energetic performances brought crowds to their feet at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, sharing and reveling in live music by the players, singers, and special guests. Ardent fans love hearing their all-time favorites.

At the 20th BobFest celebration (2018), Yuri was asked to open the show. He wrestled with how he would approach the open with the attack– the beginning buildup of a note. His five-string electric violin expressed all of its frequencies and differences in the onset of the harmonics remaining at their peak loudness until they started to disappear. It was a spectacular moment for him. A very proud moment for me as I shot the video footage reminding myself to keep steady and not tremble. 

Those notes he was pulled and held onto hung over a captivated audience. The tone and structure. His bow and the technical movements held fast yet with a light touch. Then he took it out– sending those notes to the high heavens before the time came to pull them back to earth and come together for the opening licks and Pat’s words of Dylan's iconic tune, Hurricane.

It was Yuri’s moment, and I will never forget it, especially when the present-day situation remains nebulous due to his vaccine injury. It feels overwhelming. However, I do not doubt that he will come back to play his violin the way he did that night.