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John Gorka

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Genres
  
Folk

Name
  
John Gorka

Role
  
Musician · johngorka.com


Instruments
  
Vocals, guitar

Education
  
Moravian College

Years active
  
1980s–present

Music group
  
Red Horse

John Gorka httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons66

Born
  
July 27, 1958 (age 65) (
1958-07-27
)

Origin
  
Colonia, New Jersey, US

Labels
  
Windham Hill, High Street, Red House

Albums
  
So Dark You See, Between Five and Seven, The Company You Keep, Old Futures Gone, Temporary Road

Profiles

Twitter

Occupation(s)
  
Songwriter, musician

John gorka blue chalk


John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."

Contents

John Gorka An Evening with John Gorka Flagstaff Arts Council

Woodsongs 640 john gorka eliza gilkyson blitz the ambassador


Personal life

Gorka received his first guitar as a Christmas gift. He eventually learned, instead, to play the banjo, and began performing in a folk music group at his church.

John Gorka Granite City Folk Society John Gorka 25 ticket Fri Apr

Gorka attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he studied philosophy and history. He graduated from Moravian in 1980.

John Gorka John Gorka Morningside Rogue Folk Club 021212m2ts

As of 2005, he was residing in the St. Croix Valley area near Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Career

Gorka formed the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band with Doug Anderson and Russ Rentler and would also include guitarist Richard Shindell. After graduating from Moravian, he began performing solo at a coffee house in South Bethlehem as the opening act for various musicians including: Nanci Griffith, Bill Morrissey, Claudia Schmidt and Jack Hardy. In 1984, Gorka was one of six winners chosen from the finalists in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Since then he has regularly toured Europe and North America.

He has appeared with artists such as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Michael Manring, Christine Lavin, Dave Van Ronk, Cliff Eberhardt, David Massengill, Frank Christian and Lucy Kaplansky. He joined with Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson to form the folk supergroup Red Horse in 2010, touring together and releasing a self-titled album on which they performed each other's compositions. Red Horse toured through July 2014.

In March 2014, Gorka continued his long relationship with Red House Records with the release of the acoustic CD, Bright Side of Down.

Studio albums

  • I Know (Red House, 1987)
  • Land of the Bottom Line (Windham Hill/High Street, 1990)
  • Jack's Crows (Windham Hill/High Street, 1991)
  • Temporary Road (Windham Hill/High Street, 1992)
  • Out of the Valley (Windham Hill/High Street, 1994)
  • Between Five and Seven (Windham Hill/High Street, 1996)
  • After Yesterday (Red House, 1998)
  • The Company You Keep (Red House, 2001)
  • Old Futures Gone (Red House, 2003)
  • Writing in the Margins (Red House, 2006)
  • So Dark You See (Red House, 2009)
  • Bright Side of Down (Red House, 2014)
  • Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know [Nashville, 1985] (Red House, 2016)

    • Collaboration

  • Red Horse (Red House, 2010) with Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson

    • EPs

  • Motor Folkin' (Windham Hill/High Street, 1994)

    • DVD

  • The Gypsy Life (AIX Records, 2007)

    • "Best of" albums

  • Pure John Gorka (Windham Hill, 2006)

    • On various artists compilations

  • See various issues of Fast Folk Musical Magazine for early recordings.
  • "I Saw a Stranger with Your Hair" on Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music (Windham Hill, 1989)
  • "Christmas Bells", on A Winter's Solstice, Vol. III (Windham Hill, 1990)
  • "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" on A Tribute to Bob Dylan, Vol. 2 (SIS, 1994)
  • "The Gypsy Life" on The Live from Mountain Stage, Vol. 8 (Blue Plate, 1995)
  • "The Water is Wide" on Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger (Wundertüte Musik, 1998)
  • "Sweet Love" on "Treasures Left Behind: Remembering Kate Wolf" (Red House, 1998)
  • "Bracero" on What's That I Hear?: The Songs of Phil Ochs (Sliced Bread, 1998)
  • "Thirsty Boots" (Eric Andersen) on Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 1960s (Astor Place Records, 1999)
  • "Girl from the North Country" on A Nod to Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 60th Birthday (Red House, 2001)
  • "Do La Lay", "Things We've Handed Down" and others on Down at the Sea Hotel (La Montagne Secrète, 2007)

    • References

    John Gorka Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA