Yuri Turchyn

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Growing up in the 1970s, it was an unsettled, tumultuous time. Confusing and chaotic when campus unrest gave way to desperately wanting relief and just wanting to see some great bands and listen to live music.

Originating out of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, Kinderhook Creek swept Central Jersey and Jersey Shore dive bars, drawing thousands to bigger clubs, the Stone Pony, and Asbury Park Convention Hall, into the Palladium culminating as being the only band without a recording contract to perform at the Schaeffer Music Festival in Central Park (1975). 

Just as Kinderhook unknowingly paralleled Bruce Springsteen’s rise, I started out at Douglass College, took courses at Rutgers College when they recently admitted women by 1972 and lived in the New Brunswick area. It was where I followed the band –Widow Brown's, Wooden Nickle, and so many others.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I transferred to William Paterson College. I lived a mile away from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, where I went to many unforgettable concerts. Touring bands would bring in their own sound crew and PA equipment. The audio at the Capitol was superb in the acoustically responsive 3,300-seat vaudeville-era movie house. Sound mixing stood out thanks to the stage crew and talented audio engineers.

The shows were captured on B&W video by three camera operators. In the May 1977 show, John Scher introduced Kinderhook (Creek) as the next rising star to come out of New Jersey. But they never did get a record deal. Kinderhook disbanded just about the same time that Capitol Theatre closed its doors in 1982. Yuri moved on.

Despite a short-lived cease and desist order, the music documentary, KINDERHOOK Send Your Demo Here Volume 1, was accepted into the Music Legacy category of the 2018 Asbury Park Music+Film Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.