KINDERHOOK Send Your Demo Here – Part 1

 • Music Legacy • Asbury Park Music+Film Festival
Riding high in the turbulent 1970s, New Jersey’s homegrown country rock band, Kinderhook, unknowingly paralleled the rise of Bruce Springsteen. The band’s “premiere” at Rutgers College campus gigs and local dives evolved, opening shows for headlining acts during the heyday of the Capitol Theatre (Passaic, NJ) under John Scher’s ownership and direction. Hailed as the next great band to come out of New Jersey, Kinderhook never got a record deal. Undermined by circumstances and eventualities, both Capitol Theatre and Kinderhook peaked and ebbed during a tempestuous time of unprecedented music access followed by Big Business (“suits”) taking over the music industry, marking an end of an era.

The story introduces Kinderhook Creek (later dropping the “Creek”), a country rock band known for its multiple harmonies coinciding with Bruce Springsteen’s early beginnings on campus and dive bars in the surrounding New Brunswick area. This was the seventies, a decade of winters of discontent– Vietnam, Richard Nixon, gas shortages resorting to odd-even days. Music was the center core. There was the first documented performance (1971) by Springsteen at the Ledge, a student lounge and performance venue on the College Avenue campus. 

Rebuilding went on in urban cities that were burned during the riots in the late 1960s, yet the economic decay of the downtowns pervaded across the country. Historic movie houses were saved by daytime XXX showings followed by a night shift of live music, providing an intimate theater experience for burgeoning audiences going to music concerts en masse. Back in the day, Kinderhook knew how to draw a crowd, working it at times into a feverish pitch or as Robert Palmer, New York Times. wrote in 1976, “the sextet has ample original material, much of it country-flavored, some of it exceptionally infectious.”

Yuri Turchyn and his bandmates witnessed the upheavals and lived the live music lifestyle. He graduated in 1972 with a degree in Eastern European studies and was accepted as a graduate student at Glasgow University in Scotland for International Relations. Without skipping a beat, he opted to become the fourth voice in a normally designated three-man dorm room at Rutgers and co-founded a bedrock of music. Can’t get more Jersey than that. Yuri, a.k.a. “The Professor,” still performs to this day.

Director’s Statement
Growing up in the 1970s 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 Creek unknowingly paralleled Bruce Springsteen’s rise, I too lived in the New Brunswick area, starting out at Douglass College, courses at Rutgers College since they recently started admitting women in 1972. Due to unforseen circumstances, I transferred to William Paterson College and lived a mile away from the Capitol Theatre (Passaic, NJ), and went to many unforgettable concerts.

Touring bands would also bring in their own sound crew and PA equipment. The audio was superb in the acoustically responsive 3,300-seat vaudeville-era movie house. Sound mixing stood out thanks to the Capitol 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 introduces Kinderhook as the next rising star to come out of New Jersey. Kinderhook never did get a record deal. They disbanded just about the same time that Capitol Theatre closed its doors in 1982. By 1991, I witnessed the theater demolition into a pile of rubble and took a brick. It was the end of an era.

I attended a Kinderhook fundraiser/reunion event, amazed at the audience’s reaction to the music. There were boys from the hood and girls who were among the first groupies (I was one of them every Wednesday at Dodds). It was another year before they were cajoled into another performance, this time opening for New Riders of the Purple Sage. It was an experiment: “can they bring back the magic from singing harmonies, do their original songs still hold up, will their playing be as good as it was back in the day, and how long can it last?” Tickets sold out. Then the storm hit.

A mega storm swelled rivers, flooded roads, felled trees, and knocked out power. Yuri spent the night bailing out his basement and music studio. He arrived on time for the sound check, but NRPS “owned the stage,” forcing Kinderhook to set up and do a sound check around their equipment. The ticket holders lined the halls. Four hundred people showed up. NRPS demanded the show start on time, but Yuri stepped up on behalf of Kinderhook band members, who all agreed, and stated that they would not start the show until everyone was seated. That day, I witnessed integrity and dedication to their fans. It was very much appreciated. That’s why they were a great band to start the night.

In essence, Kinderhook Send Your Demo Here, Part 1, is dedicated to the New Jersey musicians/bands who still play and to the theatres that survive. While it is no longer a physical entity, Capitol Theatre remains the spirit of everyone who contributed to the shows– working backstage, behind the scenes, front office, the performers, and to all those who came out for live music performance as it was back in the day. This music documentary was accepted into the Music Legacy category at the 2018 Asbury Park Music+Film Festival, Asbury Park, NJ. Written, directed, and produced by Christina Kotlar.