By
Ross Raihala |
rraihala@pioneerpress.com
Pioneer Press |
January 18, 2018
Things
to Do >
Music & Radio
John Gorka captures a little magic recording his new album live
in the studio
Singer/songwriter John Gorka made a habit of swinging by the office
of his record label, St. Paul’s Red House Records, every time
he was leaving for a tour. He’d stop on the way to the airport
to pick up a few CDs and chat with the employees, who had long
since become friends.
“That’s
what I did that day,” Gorka said. “I saw them in the morning and
heard the news that night. It was a big shock.” Gorka is talking
about the surprise closure of Red House Records’ St. Paul office
in November, when owner Beth Friend announced she had sold the
label to the Nashville-based Compass Records Group. Gorka’s new
record “True in Time,” which hits stores Friday, is the first
Red House album to be released through Compass.
“I
think Compass is a good company,” Gorka said during a phone interview
last week from a tour stop in Florida. “But after working with
that group of (Red House) people for so long, to have them not
be there anymore … I’m still not really adjusted to it yet.” Gorka
will spend much of the year on the road supporting “True in Time.”
He plays Crossings at Carnegie in Zumbrota on Jan. 26 and returns
to Minnesota on May 12 for a show at Hopkins Center for the Arts.
A
New Jersey native, Gorka issued his 1987 debut, “I Know,” on Red
House. After a five-album stint on Windham Hill, Gorka returned
to Red House for 1998’s “After Yesterday,” and it’s been his home
ever since. He’s called Minnesota home, too, since 1996, when
he married a native of the state and the couple moved to May Township,
about 30 miles northeast of St. Paul.
While
writing what would become “True in Time,” Gorka was inspired to
return to his roots. In late 2014, he retrieved from storage the
master tapes from his very first recording sessions. Back in 1985,
he took his first stab at capturing the songs on “I Know” in Nashville,
but ended up shelving the tapes and re-recording the material
in New Jersey. Red House issued those initial Nashville sessions
as “Before Beginning, The Unreleased I Know” in 2016.
“My
first attempt at my first record was live, with everybody singing
and playing at the same time,” Gorka said. “I figured I’d like
to do another record like that.” Last summer, Gorka did just that
with a group of local musicians including former Prince associate
Tommy Barbarella on keyboards and jazz drummer J.T. Bates. “We
set up on a Sunday night, started recording on Monday morning,
finished five songs on Monday, five songs on Tuesday and three
songs on Wednesday.”
Gorka
invited several friends to contribute guest vocals – including
his Red House labelmates Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson – that
were recorded elsewhere and added to the final mix. But he did
very little overdubbing or editing beyond that, giving the record
a warm, comfortable and timeless sound.
“The
rest of the musicians were really good listeners,” he said. “They
left me room and I was really able to hear myself. And I think
they inspired me to play better than I usually do. I had worked
with them all before, and it was so relaxed, I tried different
things on the guitar for every take. Often, it seems like the
first time I play something, it’s the best. If I try to imitate
or repeat what I had just done, it doesn’t get better, it usually
gets worse.
“There were good sightlines, so I could see everyone play. I watched
Tommy move from keyboard to keyboard — he played three different
keyboards in one take, it was just unbelievable. I think we captured
a little magic there. J.T. told me he enjoyed the sessions because
‘We’re all good enough to do it this way, but nobody ever lets
us do it this way.’ ”
Gorka
was forced to take a different approach to his guitar on “True
in Time” after an accident nearly ended the project before it
began. “I was helping a friend and neighbor clear some trees and
branches after a storm,” he said. “I cut my left thumb with a
saw and had to go to the emergency room and get nine stitches.
This was Saturday, two days before the sessions.”
Fortunately,
the ER doctor was also a guitar player and made sure Gorka could
still make the recordings work. “I had to reconfigure how I did
some of the chords, because I couldn’t wrap my thumb around the
neck like I usually would. But it feels like this thing was meant
to be, stitches or no stitches.”
Gorka
specifically chose to open and close the record with two versions
of the title track. “With the times we’re living in, with the
daily attacks on truth, I wanted to have some of my own truth,
as I see it.”
Does
that mean President Donald Trump was an inspiration?
“Oh yeah, he’s probably the leading attacker of truth in the world,”
Gorka said.
But
his dislike of Trump goes back decades. In 1991, he wrote the
anti-gentrification song “Where the Bottles Break,” and referred
to the real-estate developer as “low-life Donald what’s-his-name”
in the lyrics.
“The
biggest insult was not using his last name,” Gorka said. Gorka
doesn’t directly address Trump on the new album. “I wanted it
to be more general, I wanted the songs to last. Generally, I try
to draw on human nature rather than any specific incident. Frankly,
I don’t think he’s worth a song. That’s giving him more power
and more time than he deserves. I mentioned him in song in the
past and my opinion has not changed.”
IF
YOU GO
What: Folk singer John Gorka in concert
Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26; Crossings
at Carnegie, 320 East Ave., Zumbrota; $27-$24; 507-732-7616 or
crossingsatcarnegie.com; and 8 p.m. May 12; Hopkins Center for
the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins; $28; 952-979-1111 or hopkinsartscenter.com.
