I've
got a few solo shows next month in January in the NorthEast US
and quite a few On A Winter's Night group shows with my friends
Cliff Eberhardt, Lucy Kaplansky and Patty Larkin in February 2023.
In
general there are fewer shows ahead as I'm still playing places
with masked audiences, with more shows possible outside unmasked
in the Summertime. Having been bit by the covid bug earlier this
month I don't want to be complicit in passing it along or getting
it again. Since we still do not have live streamable internet
here at home I have been thinking of recording a few short shows
(15 - 20 minutes) at home and putting them online every now and
then. Is that something you would be interested in viewing?
It could be the kind of thing where I can comment live, though
it wouldn't be a live streamed show. Let me know. I'm trying to
adapt to the world as it is, rather than how it was or how I wish
it would be. Maybe we all are doing that?
In
any case I hope you like the videos I'm linking here! As
the saying goes: “Please Like and Subscribe”. It is free and it
helps! I
am happy to report that just today my channel went over 5,000
subscribers, One Song Concerts 2022
I hope
you have good Holidays and good Health! John
G.
September
8, 2022
Dear
Friends,
I'm
sorry that it has been so long since I sent any email updates,
but my email host company went out of business and it has taken
me some time to find a new one and navigate the technical stuff.
July
was a thankfully busy month this summer. In some ways even busier
than a non covid summer. I got to see both the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, play in New England, Pennsylvania, and teach in North
Carolina at The Swannanoa Gathering. I played closer to home in
August in Minnesota and Wisconsin and virtually with the Fox Valley
Folk Festival this past weekend. The rest of the year I have a
few live shows coming up plus a Casa de Musica online songwriter
workshop in October.
I
play at Caffe Lena this Friday, September 9 at 8 pm Eastern Time.
Here is a livestream link.
Then
onto:
Phoenicia, NY on Saturday for Flying
Cat Music and Norwich, NY on Sunday
afternoon at the Colorscape Festival.
(Audiences for the indoor shows still require mask and vax proof.
Outdoor shows do not.)
I
am glad I will be back at Godfrey Daniels Coffeehouse in
Bethlehem, PA for a show on October 2, a couple of days
after a Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band reunion on September 30,
also at Godfrey's. Three of the original members, Doug Anderson,
Russ Rentler and I haven't played together in 42 years!
I'm
From New Jersey in Kevin Smith's film Clerks III
In
other news, my song I'm From New Jersey will be playing
during the closing credits of Kevin Smith's film Clerks
III which will be in theaters next Tuesday September 13.
I've not seen the other two Clerks movies so I hope you
like this one if you go. I haven't seen it yet. I was very
happy they wanted to use the song. All three films center
on a convenience store in New Jersey. Kevin Smith is a New
Jersey native. It is a slightly different and I think improved
version of the song than the one on the Jack's Crows CD.
Although our world here isn't really back to normal, we
are getting through.
I
hope you and yours are getting through as well and you've
had some good adventures this summer!
All
the best,
John
Gorka.
Monday,
September 07, 2020
Greetings from Home
Hi everybody, It’s been awhile. I hope that you
and yours are weathering these crazy times. It seems like forever
since I last sent a newsletter to you back in February. As it
turned out, my last live show was on March 8th. I was at the
beginning of an On a Winter’s Night tour with Patty Larkin,
Cheryl Wheeler, Cliff Eberhardt and Christine Lavin—actually
driving to a show in Boston—when the remaining shows in the
tour were cancelled or postponed due to Covid, as were my own
shows booked for 2020. As of now, in-person shows on the books
for 2021 are uncertain. This Labor Day finds many of us wishing
that we could do the work we know how to do. In the meantime,
like a lot of people, I’ve been exploring new ways to get music
out there. Since April 5, I’ve recorded 23 home videos of songs,
posting one each week on Facebook and YouTube. They’re all still
up for you to listen to if you’d like to check them out. You
can find them (here).
The
YouTube link has the most recent videos first. Producing the
videos has been fun, and also a pretty steep learning curve.
I’ve had a home studio for recording audio, but the video world
is new territory. If you watch the videos in chronological order,
hopefully, you will some evolution in fits and starts. Some
are traditional folk songs, some are original, most are songs
I’ve recorded in the past, and some are newly written. I’ve
also done a few songs by others, including Doug Anderson’s You
Can Run and Janis Ian’s Better Times will Come. Janis had invited
some of her musical friends to record the song, and I was among
the first to respond with a version. Her project has really
taken off: there are now well over a hundred recordings, with
variations expressed in dance, coloring books, Seattle punk,
ASL, and many other languages, including Japanese, Dutch, and
Gaelic. All together, the versions have had many thousands of
views. Find them (here).
In
addition to the weekly songs, in August I had the chance to
participate in Eliza Gilkyson’s Casa de Musica songwriting workshop,
which was online for the first time. We had 21 students over
a four-day period. It’s always amazing to be a part of these,
because you get an idea of how much talent is out there, and
how much people can accomplish when they work at it. Though
it was conducted via Zoom it had the same spirit as the in-person
workshops. Also in August, I was part of a program hosted by
Artreach St. Croix in Stillwater, MN, that was part of the NEA
Big Read, focused on science and song. Sean Otto talked about
his book, “The War on Science,” and I did a short set of songs.
Some of my earlier shows have been streamed for audiences online,
including the first show I did for Tales from the Tavern, and
also a show from January 2019 at Caffé Lena, Saratoga Springs,
NY. You can check the tour dates section of my website for future
streamed shows. The shows are pre-recorded, but I generally
participate in the event by responding to comments from audiences
during the show. On the horizon, if the technology cooperates,
I may be doing my first live-streamed concert on Tuesday, October
20, with Joyce Sica's Uptown Concerts. If it happens, I’ll update
you by email. Here
is the link.
Otherwise,
I’m just trying to focus on what I can do rather than what I
can’t, and keeping in mind all the people who are in a tough
spot. If you are suffering from anxiety, depression or insomnia,
please know that you are not alone. My approach has been to
have "small, achievable goals" every day but that might not
work foreverybody,
me included. I hope all eligible voters vote and that every
vote is counted, to keep our democracy alive. To register or
to check your registration status, visit: https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote
In honor of Labor Day, I look forward to watching the documentary
film about Utah Phillips that’s airing through midnight
tonight on foraifilm.com. It’s called “Tales from the Long Memory:
the story of America you didn’t learn in school.” Maybe you’d
like to watch it, too. Any time I can here a story from Utah,
I count it as a good day.
That's
the news for now. I hope these words and pictures find you safe
and well! All the best, John G, Labor Day 2020 .
John Gorka & Bruce Utah Phillips at Godfrey
Daniels in 1994
If
you would like to order John Gorka CDs or DVDs, please go
here. If
you would like to make a donation to John Gorka, please go
here.
I'm
sorry it has been so long since I connected with you! Lots going
on. I'm sure that it's the same with you. In any case, here's
some news:
Last
November marked the revival of On a Winter's Night, a group
tour that was started in 1990 by Christine Lavin. The longest
running line-up that toured under the name for nearly two decades
included Patty Larkin, Cheryl Wheeler, Cliff Eberhardt and me.
Christine has rejoined the group for the reunion, with shows
last fall in the northeast and midwest. Over a dozen On a Winter's
Night shows are booked his coming March in Colorado, California
and the northwest. These upcoming shows may have various combinations
of 4-5 players, so if you're interested, check my itinerary
for dates and the specific venues for line-ups. It's been fun
to travel and do shows with artists and friends I've known for
such a long time. Audiences have been telling us that they enjoy
the music and the camaraderie, too.This January also happened
to mark the first Red Horse show in 1 & 1/2 years, a group that
includes Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky and me. We played in
Gainesville, at the University of Florida, and had a great time.
There are more shows in the works... In other recent travels,
I was happy to share the stage with Michael Smith in a workshop
at the Fox Valley Festival in Illinois in September. Michael
wrote The Dutchman, which is one of those songs that changed
my idea of what a song could be. He is a fantastic songwriter!
We may do some shows together later this year. In December,
I was also glad to be able to hear Chris Stills at Swallow Hill
in Denver, and to bring home his new LP, called Don't Be Afraid.
Other shows brought me to some new favorite venues where I hadn't
played before, including The Word Barn in Exeter, New Hampshire
and the Sofia Tsakapolous Center for the Arts in Sacramento,
CA.
This
January also happened to mark the first Red Horse show in 1
& 1/2 years, a group that includes Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky
and me. We played in Gainesville,
at the University of Florida, and had a great time. There are
more shows in the works...
In
other recent travels, I was happy to share the stage with Michael
Smith in a workshop at the Fox Valley Festival in Illinois in
September. Michael wrote The Dutchman, which is one of those
songs that changed my idea of what a song could be. He is a
fantastic songwriter! We may do some shows together later this
year. In December, I was also glad to be able to hear Chris
Stills at Swallow Hill in Denver, and to bring home his new
LP, called Don't Be Afraid. Other shows brought me to some new
favorite venues where I hadn't played before, including The
Word Barn in Exeter, New Hampshire and the Sofia Tsakapolous
Center for the Arts in Sacramento, CA.
In
five days in January, I went from -16 F seeing a snowshoe hare
in Alberta, Canada to 66 F degrees seeing Spanish moss in Florida!
Looking ahead, there are many solo shows along with the Winter's
Night tour, including plans in the works for a return to Ireland
in May and The Netherlands in November.
As always, I continue to work on new songs. A few songs in the
works are collaborations with John Vezner and with Eliza Gilkyson.
Hope comes from surprising places these days. Most recently,
it came from our local librarian, who taped a few tax forms
I needed on the outside door of the library, where I could find
them after closing time on the day of the IRS deadline. Especially
in a world where the troubles are big and many, there is no
such thing as a small kindness.
It
has been very green here in Minnesota this summer. We still have
a vernal pool that is usually gone by the middle of July, so I
guess it is a full fledged pond now.
I've
been covering a lot of ground in recent months, with shows in
Washington State and Oregon, North Carolina, Colorado,
Texas and Michigan, as well as a number in the northeast and a
few closer to home, in Zumbrota and Cedar Rapids. In April,I
was in Europe for nearly three weeks, with
shows
in the Netherlands, Germany and the Basque
region of Spain. It was a trip of contrasts: the lowland fields
of Holland blooming with daffodils and hyacinth, the hills along
the Rhine where
I played in Germany at Mayence
Acoustique,
the mountains rising from the Bay of Biscay at San Sebastian,
where my hosts treated me to two late-night, multi-course, after-show
feasts that I barely but happily survived. I was glad to be able
to extend the tour to visit our son, Joe, who was in Dublin at
Trinity College for the semester. He played a short set at an
impromptu show, the first time we've shared the stage.
I enjoyed returning to two song schools this summer, meeting up
with students to talk about songs and songwriting. As usual, I
came away inspired by being in the company of such talented people.
The first was in June at Eliza Gilkyson's Casa de Musica near
Taos, NM the second was the long-running Swannanoa
Gathering near Asheville, NC in late July.
Outside of my own sessions, it was great to sit in on Tom Paxton's
class "What I Learned from Pete and Woody," and Jon Vezner's session
on song critiquing. Scott Ainsley was generous with his time and
gave me a short lesson on slide-guitar. I think I learned more
in twenty minutes with Scott than I had in a couple years of messing
around on my own. My family thanks him.
I hope
you're hanging on in these troubled and chaotic times. I've found
that music helps. You maybe saw the recent study suggesting that
attending live music does more to extend your life than yoga or
walking the dog. I'm not sure about that. To paraphrase Grouch
Marx "Outside of a dog, music is man's best friend. Inside of
a dog it's too hard to hear."
Looking
forward seeing you at upcoming shows. Next up is a run of shows
in Fort Atkinson, WI, Chicago and Geneva, IL.
Aug 30, 2019
Cafe Carpe Ft. Atkinson, WI
Aug 31, 2019 City Winery Chicago,
IL
Sep 1, 2019 Fox Valley Folk Music
& Storytelling Festival Geneva, IL
Sep 5, 2019 BluSeed Studios Saranac
Lake, NY
Sep 6, 2019 Towne Crier Cafe Beacon,
NY
Sep 7, 2019 Colorscape Chenango Arts
& Music Festival Norwich, NY
Sep 26, 2019 The Word Barn Exeter,
NH
Sep 27, 2019 Me & Thee Coffeehouse
Marblehead, MA
Sep 28, 2019 Unison Arts Center New
Paltz, NY
Sep 29, 2019 mActivity New Haven
, CT
Oct 4, 2019 Bridge Street Live Collinsville,
CT
Oct 5, 2019 Congregational Church
of Huntington Centerport, NY
Oct 6, 2019 Flying Cat Music Series
at Phoenicia United Methodist Church Phoenicia, NY
Oct 13, 2019 Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN
Oct 17, 2019 Sofia Tsakapolous Center
for the Arts Sacramento, CA
Oct 18, 2019 Sebastopol Community
Center Sebastopol, CA
Oct 19, 2019 The Fore Family Winery
Kelseyville, CA
Oct 20, 2019 Freight and Salvage
Berkeley, CA
Nov 1, 2019 The Ark Ann Arbor, MI
Nov 2, 2019 Dogwood Center for the
Performing Arts Fremont, MI .
PS -- It was great to visit the Fine Arts
Work Center in Cape Code in June where I was introduced
by my friend, Patty Larkin.
Glad
to be a FAWCer!
Also,
looking forward to attending The
Heal, at The Getty Villa in Malibu, CA a play
with original music written and performed by my friend Cliff
Eberhardt. Break a leg Mr. Cliff!
- JG .
John
Gorka's Greeting & News (January 13,2019)
Hello in this New Year,
I've had a nice few weeks with family and am looking forward to
seeing some of you out there at upcoming shows. In the first part
of the year I'll be headed to the northwest with shows in Oregon
and Washington; then to the northeast with shows in Pennsylvania
and Upstate New York. Before March is over, I'll also play in
New England, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, and Colorado.
In April, I'm headed to
Europe for a series of shows in The Netherlands,
Germany, and Spain. You can check out a list of shows, below,
with a link to the complete (and regularly updated) list on my
website.
Thanks
to you, 2018 was a good year. I appreciated your coming out
to shows and listening to the music. Two new projects were
released, including True
in Time, and Tales
from the Tavern, Volume 2. True in Time
ended up on several Top 10 lists, including Folk Alley and
Radio Heartland. As of December, both Volumes 1 and 2 of Tales
from the Tavern (CD and DVD sets recorded live in Santa Ynez,
CA) became available on the johngorka.com website, where you
can also now find the lyrics to all the songs on True in Time.
Also
new in '18 was a lyric video of a song not yet on any CD, titled
Particle and Wave. This song was written on the day of the March
for Our Lives event, inspired by the Parkland students' fight
to stop school violence. Here's where you can fine it on YouTube:
Mixed
in with the good things of 2018 have been troubled times and losses.
I lost my best boyhood friend, Peter Verile. My condolences to
those of you have also lost loved ones in the past year.
"You
carry on as best you can. Get out of bed and Rise Again." -- Tattooed
JG
Link
to complete list of confirmed shows:http://johngorka.com/tour-dates/
Link to True in Time lyrics:http://johngorka.com/cds-and-such/lyrics/
PS -- Gorka is a first name in the Basque region of Spain
I hope this note finds you well! All the best, John G. .
May 18, 2017
News
and Travels
Hello From Minnesota, I've played in 26 states so far this year
with miles to go before I sleep. My next few shows are in Delaware,
Maryland and Pennsylvania. The show in Wilmington, DE has special
guests Larry
Campbell and Teresa Williams who are fellow Red House recording
artists. You may know Larry as a very talented producer as well.
The next night is an Uptown Concerts show in Fulton, MD with my
friend Cheryl
Wheeler. This will be very big fun! Sunday I'll be back at
the Spring
Gulch Festival.
In the beginning of June I'll be doing a string of shows in Northern
Michigan with my friend Amilia
Spicer who has a new CD out entitled Wow and Flutter.
Upcoming
Shows and Events
For complete details and a full listing of complete shows go to: John
Gorka Tour dates
I
found out recently that my newest/oldest recording Before Beginning
won an Indie Acoustic Award as best singer-songwriter record of
2016. What a nice thing to be recognized so long after its conception
and recording back in 1985!
I'm
aiming to do some recording of new material in the weeks ahead.
I hope to see you out there somewhere!
All
the best,
John G.
February
28, 2017
Hello
From John Gorka Greetings from the snowy North
Hello
to You, I write this on the last day of the shortest month. There
was snow over night but it's been a fairly mild winter here in
Minnesota. As a traveller it's been a good start to the year,
so far playing in 7 states with 14 more to go in the next 2 months.
I've been pretty lucky just missing torrential rains in Southern
California and snow storms in Pennsylvania. I did get caught in
a blizzard in November in northern Minnesota, though. I made it
to Nisswa, but the show was cancelled when the power went out
in town. It's been rescheduled for March 10. I made it to the
30A Songwriter Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida in January
where the temperatures were in the '70s, warmer than the first
time I was there. I drove through the mountains in south eastern
Oklahoma which is apparently Bigfoot country, near Broken Bow.
I had no sightings but it looked like a nice place for smaller
feet as well..
In
other news I'm hoping to record an album of new material this
summer with a release date in the early part of next year. I am
happiest when I'm in the middle of a song and I've got a few of
them in the works.
I'll
be returning to Eliza Gilkyson's Casa de Musica Songwriter Workshop
June 15-18 inTaos, New Mexico. As of this writing there are a
few spaces still available. Here
is a link
This
is where I'll be in the next couple of months. I hope it is somewhere
near you.
Playing
close to home next week
My Canadian friend Rose's new record Natural Conclusion is getting
a lot of well deserved attention. She is touring with her band
and I look forward to sharing the stage with her next week at
The Dakota in Minneapolis.
It looks like I made the Top Artists of 2016 on the Folk DJ List
for this past year. A big thanks to the Folk DJs! As compiled
by Richard Gillmann from FOLKDJ-L playlists: http://folkradio.org/
It
looks like there is a trip to Europe in the works for late October
I am happy to report. Click
here for the link.
August
2, 2016 Newest
Oldest Recording
As
you can tell by the photo from my new record cover above, I have
gotten a lot younger and more intense lately.
In
November of 1985 I made my first record, but it never came out…until
now. At Nanci Griffith's suggestion, I contacted Nashville-based
producer Jim Rooney. I loved the sound of Nanci's Once in a Very
Blue Moon record, which he had produced, and was excited at the
prospect of working with him. We had a very productive session,
recording 10 songs in 5 days, featuring stellar players that Jim
brought in, including
Stuart
Duncan on fiddle and mandolin, Kenny Malone on drums, and Dave
Pomeroy on bass. Lucy Kaplansky and Shawn Colvin accepted my invitation
to sing on the record, coming down from New York City for the
session, and guitarist Mike Dugan made the trip from Bethlehem,
PA.
Why
did I not release it at the time? I can only say that I was still
finding my way. I'm glad to share these recordings with you now.
You may be familiar with the songs (9 out of 10 were later re-recorded
and released on my first record, 'I Know,' with Red House Records),
but these previously unreleased recordings from the Nashville
session offer a different musical slant on the songs, reflecting
the energy of a group of musicians and singers playing together
at the same time in one room. When I recently listened to these
old recordings, I liked what I heard, and I thought you might
like to hear them, too.
Released
on July 22, it's titled 'Before Beginning: The Unreleased 'I Know,'
(Nashville 1985). It's available now from Red House Records and
signed copies will be available on my website at http://johngorka.com/
very soon. Aside from time in the studio with Rob Genadek getting
the new record ready for release, the summer has been filled with
touring and working on new songs.
Stay
tuned to the Red House Records website for a free download of
a new song called "Five
Letter Word" which you might describe as 'in season.'
Check out the list of upcoming shows through October. Hope to
see you out there!
Shows,
Summer into Fall
Aug
4, 2016 The Mainstay - Rock Hall, MD Aug
5, 2016 Towne Crier Cafe - Beacon, NY Aug
6, 2016 Guthrie Center - Great Barrington, MA Aug
13, 2016 Old Wadena Rendezvous & Folklife Festival - Wadena, MN Aug
19, 2016 Cafe Carpe - Ft. Atkinson, WI Aug
20, 2016 Live Radio Broadcast - Chicago, IL Aug
27, 2016 Great River Folk Festival - La Crosse, WI Aug
28, 2016 Great River Folk Festival - La Crosse, WI
Sep 10, 2016 First Unitarian Church - Des Moines, IA Sep
16, 2016 Rubin Museum of Art - New York, NY Sep
18, 2016 The Turning Point - Piermont, NY
Sep 23, 2016 Opera House at Boothbay Harbor - Boothbay Harbor,
ME Sep
24, 2016 Apple Festival - Alfred, ME Oct
2, 2016 Minnesota State University - Mankato, MN Oct
20, 2016 Private Event - Denver, CO Oct
21, 2016 Swallow Hill Music Hall - Denver, CO
Oct
22, 2016 Midtown Arts Center, Theatre ONE - Fort Collins, CO
Oct 23, 2016 Steve's Guitars - Carbondale, CO
For a more complete list of upcoming shows
go to
http://johngorka.com/tour-dates/
Heading
West...............
March 31, 2016 Hello everybody,
It's been a while since I've written to you! I hope your spring
is starting off well. We’ve had a pretty mild winter here in Minnesota,
so I’ve been able to get out on my bike in the month of March,
which is a pleasantly early beginning to the riding season.
Travels
in recent months have included a February trip to The Netherlands,
which included a show in The Hague in honor of my good friend
Willem Leeuwenhoek, who sadly passed away in November of 2014.
The little G# electric guitar that you may have heard me play
at shows was a gift from Willem, who was beloved by many and is
greatly missed. Those who knew him would agree that Willem approached
life as an art. The trip itself was a pleasure, as I was hosted
by Willem’s family and the family of Peter ter Horst. I also got
to reconnect with my friend Jos Van Vliet, who started a video
site featuring many of the interviews and performances I’ve done
through the years. Here’s a link to the site he created, which
includes video of the
recent show at The Hague: http://www.johngorka.nl/
Jos also took the photo above.
Later in February, I appreciated the chance to do two
shows withPeter
Yarrow in South Orange, NJ and Port Washington, NY. We
shared the stage and sang together on a number of songs
including Peter, Paul & Mary's versions of “If I Had
a Hammer,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “Five Hundred Miles”.It
was really an honor. Photo:
Love Imagery
I
found out how funny he can be, and was also impressed again by
his continuing activism for many good causes in the world, such
as Operation Respect, a youth anti-bullying campaign.
Among
the March trips was a visit back to my old stomping grounds
in Bethlehem, PA for a couple of shows celebrating the 40th
Anniversary of Godfrey Daniels. I got to see many of my old
friends, who, like me, have not aged a bit /s. Congratulations
to Godfreys, one of the longest running live music coffeehouses
in America!!!
I’m
looking ahead to shows out west, starting with a show tomorrow,
Friday, April 1 at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley,
CA. I’m happy to say that Michael Manring will be joining
me, one of the most innovative bass players anywhere. (No
April fooling.)
Later
spring shows will take me to the northwest and the southeast
(see below for details), and to Taos for a reprise of the
La Casa de Musica, the songwriting workshop presented by Eliza
Gilkyson.
On
the personal front, let me just say that I have new appreciation
for any parent who has navigated the college application and financial
aid process! And let's hope we all make it through the November
elections!
My
best to you all, hope to see you at a show when I’m in your neighborhood
-- John Gorka.
Upcoming
Shows VENUE / LOCATION
Apr
1, 2016 Freight and Salvage Berkeley, CA - With Michael Manring!
Apr
2, 2016 Pilgrim Congregational Church Redding, CA Apr
3, 2016 Sutter Creek Theatre Sutter Creek, CA Apr
14, 2016 Flying Goose Brewpub, New London, NH Apr
15, 2016 Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry, NH Apr
16, 2016 Common Fence Point Community Hall Portsmouth, RI Apr
17, 2016 The Long Island Museum Gillespie Room Stony Brook, NY
Apr
21, 2016 Eat, Drink Morso Gig Harbor, WA Apr
22, 2016 Alberta Rose Theatre Portland, OR Apr
23, 2016 Phinney Neighborhood Center Seattle, WA
May
12, 2016 BluSeed Studios at Saranac Village Saranac Lake, NY May
13, 2016 Eighth Step at Proctors Schenectady, NY May
14, 2016 Auburn Public Theater Auburn, NY May
15, 2016 Hugh's Room Toronto, Ontario May
19, 2016 Red & Shorty's Concert Series Dover , NH May
20, 2016 The Chocolate Church Bath, ME May
21, 2016 Homegrown Coffeehouse at First Parish Unitarian Church
Needham, MA May
22, 2016 City Winery, New York, NY
Jun
2, 2016 The Crimson Moon, Dahlonega, GA Jun
3, 2016 ISIS Restaurant and Music Hall Asheville, NC Jun
4, 2016 Red Clay Theatre Duluth, GA
For a more complete list of upcoming shows
go to
http://johngorka.com/tour-dates/ .
Gorka Notes & Shows Through November
September 17, 2015
Baldwin's Station in Sykesville,
Maryland
Hello,
I
hope you're doing well. The leaves here are just starting
to turn, and I'm looking ahead to my next round of shows,
when it will officially be Fall. I'll kick off the new season
with a show at Baldwin's Station in Sykesville, Maryland.
If you haven't had a chance to see a show at this venue, I
hope you'll check it out. It's a restaurant in an old train
station with a stage in the corner; an intimate setting to
perform
and
listen to music. I'll go on to shows in Pennsylvania and Ohio (see
details below and on
my website)
It's
been a really nice summer. Songwriter workshops in New Mexico
and Utah went well. I found working with the other songwriters
to be very inspiring. Some people attending had never written
a song before, while others had been longtime writers and had
their own CDs. Teaching at these workshops challenged me to try
to find words for a process that has really always been more or
less intuitive. My main hope was to offer something of value for
each of the participants from some of what has worked for me.
I can say there were plenty of good songs that came of these workshops,
and it was a privilege to be a part of them. I'll be returning
to Eliza Gilkyson's Casa de Musica workshop in Taos, NM next June.
Casa de Musica Songwriter Workshop with Tyson Eastland, David
E. Clemmer, David Clauss, clay eastland, Gail Husson, John Mahon,
Randy Mulkey, Elaine Bergman, Rich Frasier, Michael Sackett, John
Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson, Terry Conlan, Stephen Scholle, Stephen
Scholle, Maddie Clemmer, Cisco Ryder Gilliland, Wendy Silk, Heather
Coryell, Gail Martin, William Anderson en Chick Morgan.
Other
highlights of the summer were shows in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,
The Lunenburg
Folk Harbour Festival in Nova Scotia, The Kerriville Fall
Festival and
the 50th Anniversary of The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI where
I shared the stage with Peter Yarrow, Vienna Teng and Robbie
Schaefer. I hope to be singing on Antje Duvekot's new record
on a song called "Half Light".
I was also invited to sing a duet with Honor Finnegan on
Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes' "Song of Bernadette"
for Honor's upcoming CD.".I'm
still putting the finishing touches on an old recording
that preceded "I
Know" featuring most of the songs from that debut record
with unreleased versions of those songs recorded in Nashville
in November 1985. The working title is "Before Beginning".
Looking
a bit farther ahead, my plans include a trip to Texas in
December and Holland in early February. One of the Holland
shows will be in honor of my dear friend, Willem
Leeuwenhoek, who we sadly lost last November and is
missed by all who knew him. <
Willem Leeuwenhoek
Enjoy the fine days and all the rest. Hope to see you out there.
Sep
24, 2015 Baldwin's Station Sykesville,
MD Sep
25, 2015 Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Harrisburg, PA Sep
26, 2015 Songspace at First Unitarian
Pittsburgh, PA Sep
27, 2015 Beachland Ballroom Cleveland,
OH Oct
2, 2015 Me & Thee Coffeehouse
Marblehead, MA
Oct 3, 2015 The Spire Center for Performing
Arts Plymouth, MA Oct
4, 2015 Iron Horse Northampton,
MA Oct
10, 2015 Arrowhead Center for the Arts
Grand Marais, MN
Oct 17, 2015 Platteville High School
Auditorium Platteville, WI
Oct 22, 2015 World Cafe Live
at The Queen Upstairs Wilmington, DE Oct
23, 2015 Peter Hall at Moravian College
Bethlehem, PA Oct
24, 2015 Unitarian Universalist Church
Titusville, NJ Nov
2, 2015 Lips Atrium in the Charlton
Building Rochester, MN Nov
6, 2015 C-U Folk and Roots Festival
Urbana, IL Nov
8, 2015 CSPS Cedar Rapids, IA Nov
13, 2015 Ashland Coffee & Tea Ashland,
VA Nov
15, 2015 Southport Senior Center
Southport, NC
Nov 21, 2015 Cedar Cultural Center
Minneapolis, MN
There
was a sign in the window of a beauty shop that I passed on the
road last weekend in Upstate New York:
Facial
Positions Available
I hope I'm doing a show near you but if I'm not I want you to
know that I feel it is my loss. Proceeds from the sale of my CDs
at my shows and on the johngorka.com website go to one of my favorite
causes -- The Center For Advanced Learning... (at our house).
It looks like our son will be off to college in just under a year
to be followed by our daughter 2 years after that.
Thank you for looking at this all the way to The End .
June 4, 2015
Hello from Minnesota,
I've
been home or close to home these last few weeks which has made
me very happy. We've had some rain to help get us out of the moderate
drought we've been experiencing, but we've also had some gorgeous
days on which I've been able to ride my bicycle. The first few
months of the year were very busy with shows through 18 states
and provinces. Below is a list of shows for the summer and I will
also be part of 2 concentrated songwriter workshops: First with
my friend Eliza Gilkyson, in Taos, NM and the second in Salt Lake
City, UT with Kate Macleod, at the end of June. Eliza's Residency
is all filled up but there may be some room in the Utah Song School.
I
head back to my old stomping grounds this weekend starting with
a show at Godfrey Daniels where I got my start. That show is sold
out, I'm told, but the outdoor show the next evening in Bryn Mawr
has tickets available. In both shows I will be joined my fellow
Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band member, Russ Rentler on mandolin. The shows
over the July 4th weekend are with my friend Cliff Eberhardt.
Our shows together are always big fun. Come if you can! For more
info on these shows, the Utah Song School and others please
go to this link.
I'm
hoping to put out a recording I did in 1985 in Nashville,
produced by Jim Rooney. If you've heard my
debut record, I Know (1987), you will be familiar with
9 out of the 10 songs here but the versions are distinctly
different, with some excellent players such as Stuart Duncan,
Dave Pomeroy and Kenny Malone. Shawn Colvin and Lucy Kaplansky
came down for these sessions as well. We had to bake the multitrack
tapes in order to transfer the tracks to a digital form and
then did a new mix of each song. The working title is Before
Beginning. I will let you know when it is available.
I
am still sorry about the recent passing of Mr. B.B. King. In real
life he was never wrong.
Have a good summer!
There was an article in the Dallas Morning
News recently about
the restoration of Pegasus, the original "Flying Red Horse" sign
in Dallas. My song was used in a video version of the story which
you can view here...
The people who designed this poster
did a really nice job. It's from a few years back, in Durham,
NC.
Jun
5, 2015 Godfrey Daniel's Bethlehem, PA Jun
6, 2015 Bryn Mawr Twilight Concerts Bryn Mawr, PA Jun
7, 2015 The Turning Point Piermont, NY Jun
11, 2015 Casa De Musica Songwriting Residency with Eliza
............
Gilkyson Taos, NM Jun
25, 2015 Intermountain Acoustic Music Association Song ............
School .Salt Lake City, UT Jun
27, 2015 Utah Arts Festival Salt Lake City, UT Jul
3, 2015 Great Waters Music Festival Wolfeboro, NH Jul
4, 2015
Jonathan's Ogunquit, ME Jul
5, 2015 The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Old ............
Saybrook, CT
Jul 24, 2015 Private Event Jackson Hole, WY Jul
26, 2015 The Ark Ann Arbor, MI Aug
6, 2015 Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival Lunenburg, Nova
............
Scotia Aug
13, 2015 SubCulture New York, NY Aug
14, 2015 Guthrie Center Great Barrington, MA Aug
15, 2015 Private Event Stamford, CT Aug
16, 2015 YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Bay
............
Shore, NY Aug
28, 2015 Amazing Grace Bakery Duluth, MN Aug
29, 2015 Amazing Grace Bakery Duluth, MN
Saturday,
February 28, 2015
Hello There,
While the northeast US has borne a beast of a winter, we in Minnesota
have had to deal with some normal sub-zero temperatures but not
a lot of snow. So far we have had it pretty easy but March is
known to be a very snowy month so I cannot yet claim this to be
a mild winter. (My wife says that I'm officially a Minnesotan
starting off this newsletter talking about the weather). My indoor
interests have me geeking out making, breaking and rebuilding
my computers for audio recording. It's an oddly enjoyable form
of trouble. I am now ready and looking forward to being in the
middle of a song. It might be my favorite place to be.
Thank
you for the great response to my last email mentioning my
CDs as holiday gifts. Bright Side of Down was the 3rd most
played album on the Folk DJ List for all of last year I am
happy to report. Also, late last Fall I found out that one
of my songs, Semper
Fi, was on Peter, Paul and Mary's new live CD Discovered:
Live In Concert. I had heard that Mary sang the song in
their live shows but I never heard her do it and didn't know
that there was a recording. I am thrilled to have one of my
songs on a Peter, Paul and Mary record. I am really pleased
with her rendition as it was so true to the spirit of the
song. I wish she were still here so that I could thank her.
I've
already played in Northern California, Iowa, Arizona, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota so far this year with the next bunch of
shows listed below. The last 2 shows were especially fun with
my friends Michael Johnson and Cheryl Wheeler. Also, I will be
taking part in Eliza Gilkyson's Casa De Musica songwriting workshop
for the first time in Taos, NM June 11-14.
Here is a link for more information about that.
The
shows for the next couple months are listed below. I'm bouncing
around the country quite a bit! Have fun out there if you can
wherever you are and wherever you go. .
This is a note to say thank you for your interest in my music.
Thanks to those who came to the shows, bought physical cds, downloads
and also to the streamers. Thank you for listening. Thank you
all. If you would like to purchase cds from my website as holiday
gifts, I will sign every last one of them. I am happy to report
my newest, Bright Side of Down is turning up on lists of favorite
cds of the year, . If you order the cds by Monday night I should
be able to get them in the mail on Tuesday, Dec. 16. I send them
out USPS 1st Class Mail.
To
buy cds go here.
(I have only a few dvds on hand)
In
some other good news my song Semper Fi is on the new Peter, Paul
and Mary cd "Discovered: Live in Concert". I haven't heard the
recording yet but I'm happy that the song is on there. For a list
of upcoming shows please go here.
I hope this finds you merry and bright --
All
the best,
John
G.
John Gorka Music Hello
to you in October 2014
Thursday,
October 02, 2014
Looking forward to seeing you out there.
Hello
to You, I hope this note finds you well. It looks like a busy
Fall travel season ahead beginning this week in Ontario, Canada
at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener on Friday, next week in Maryland
, PA and NJ.
The show in PA is at The Kennett Flash in Kennett Square, PA "The
Mushroom Capital of the World". There are trips to New England,
Texas and North Carolina as you will see if you scroll down. For
a full schedule of upcoming confirmed shows please go to John
Gorka tour dates
I'm
also looking forward to working on a new batch of songs this Fall.
I've got bits and pieces of them, fragments that won't seem to
leave me alone, which is something I've learned to pay attention
to. Lately I've been challenging myself to write songs in different
time signatures, like 5/4 time, so I've been counting to five
over and over and over again in different tempos. It's fun to
experiment, we'll see how it goes.
I
want to take a moment here to congratulate Eric Peltoniemi, president
of Red House Records, for being recognized with a Lifetime Achievement
Award by the Folk Alliance Midwest. In addition to being an artist
in his own right, Eric has made a great contribution to the world
of folk and acoustic music through his longtime association with
Red House Records. Check
the Red
House website to see all the great music, past and present,
and the community of artists that Eric and this label have brought
together
In
the past few weeks my travels have taken me through drought-stricken
areas of California with temperatures of 109 degrees, and along
northern Minnesota roads with signs warning of sled-dog crossings
and snow in the forecast. Sometimes this life is a study in extremes.
At
the moment here in Minnesota rain is falling and there is color
in the trees. Thank you for listening.
Rockingham
Community College Auditorium
Wentworth , NC
Dec
5, 2014
8:00 pm
Fiddle
& Bow Society at Community Arts Cafe
411 W. Fourth St. Winston-Salem ,
NC 336-724-9393.
Dec
6, 2014
7:00 pm
Providence
United Methodist Church
2810 Providence Rd
Charlotte, NC
Dec
7, 2014
7:00 pm
Mountain
Spirit
Coffeehouse at UU Asheville
1 Edwin Place
Asheville, NC 828-299-4171 Website.
This
is the September 2014 newletter withhyperlinks
John Gorka says Hello
And hopes he's coming to a town near you.
Hello
from Minnesota,
Though
it's technically still summer and the humidity is high, it's starting
to feel more like fall here, with the deer returning to their
winter gray.
I'm
starting to mix some recordings from very early in my career
for possible release, which has been fun. Also in the worksin
recent weeks was a session with Dirk Freymuth, who invited
me to record with him
on
a version of one of my favorite Stan Rogers songs, "Harris and
the Mare." It's funny that Dirk would bring up a song that I requested
Stan sing at a show in December 1980, on the first night I met
him.
Post-session beer (John Gorka & Rob Genadek at the Black Forest
Inn)
Projects this summer have included creating a studio version of
"Give us Back our Water," which was written in response to the
chemical spill in Charleston, West Viriginia that contaminated
the drinking water. Eliza Gilkyson sang with me on the track,
recording from her studio in Austin. The song has since become
part of a larger recording project with many other artists focused
on issues related to water, featuring Kathy Mattea and Tim O'Brien
to name a few. I'm glad to be part of it.
John
Gorka Give Us Back Our Water (Live from Mountain Stage) 2014
As always, I'm writing new songs and preparing songs old and new
for future recordings.
Aug
4, 2016 The Mainstay - Rock Hall, MD
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