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John
Gorka seems comfortable with the belief he "won't ever have it made.
"
The singer-songwriter-multi-instumentalist says he realized long ago if
he had any commercial success "it would be a fluke," so he has kept focused
at creating his own distinctive brand of music.
In
the nearly 25 years since his first album, Gorka has maintained a following
that might not fill stadium concerts, but will turn out with enough enthusiasm
to quickly sell out shows such as Thursday evening's at the Pittsburgh
Center for the Arts in Shadyside for Calliope, Pittsburgh's Folk Music
Society.
"I
realized I am not mainstream," he says, "and I figured if I keep doing
what I do, the people who get it would react stronger than the people
who don't."
That
non-mainstream sound seems to have worked well, both in this country and
in Europe, where he performed recently in concerts met with a success
that surprises and pleases him. He says that kind of reaction convinces
him he is correct at "doing what I do."
What
he does is create songs that easily fall into a "noveau folk" category.
After all, in 1984, three years before his first album, he won the New
Folk award at a Texas music festival. Since then, he has put together
songs that tell stories of dealing with life, heartache and joy. They
are songs that are political not in a red- or blue-state fashion, but
in the way they look at what has become of this society.
They
are songs that tell their stories in purely American ways. They deal with
growing up in New Jersey. Or of watching rolling farmland turn into suburbs.
Or of his father's decision to go to the Marines rather than work in Pennsylvania's
mines.
But
he says those stories seem to translate well in Europe. He believes that
comprehension comes from the "sound of the voice" and the music. He says
he also has been impressed at the way European audiences seem to pay attention
to the lyrics and understand what is happening in the songs.
Of
course, globalization seems to have made Europeans aware of "American
goings-on quite a bit," so, he thinks it makes sense they would understand
his music.
Telling
those stories demands the ability to write convincing and compelling lyrics,
which would hint at some mastery of poetic skills. Gorka is appreciative
of comments about his lyrics but backs away from being considered a poet.
"I've
always admired poets who can do everything with words alone," he says.
"Or instrumentalists who can do that with music. I help things along by
using music to back up the words.
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