.................John Gorka: Bright Side of Down


Veteran singer-songwriter John Gorka returns in 2014 after a four-year absence with the release of his Bright Side of Down. The album opens with something that's a little too familiar from these past few weeks: being stranded by a snowstorm.

I'm holded up in Mason City waiting for
the roads to clear
Second day of a blizzard and winter
isn't even here.

Gorka's style is clear, warm, and full of life's little insights where "our memories are pictures with scissors for thoughts." He brings in friends Eliza Gilkyson and Lucy Kaplansky, among others, to fill out a big folk sound that's somewhere between coffee house and concert hall.

The album begins with a winter blizzard and ends with a hope for spring in "Really Spring." In between you hear slices of middle America and universal human experience. Fans of Gorka will welcome this new offering and first-time listeners won't be disappointed.

 


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