John Gorka (born 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."
Gorka received his first guitar as a Christmas gift, though Gorka alleges that his older brother stole it from him shortly thereafter. He eventually learned, instead, to play the banjo, and began performing in a folk music group at his church.
Gorka attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and joined the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band which would also include guitarist Richard Shindell. He later began performing solo at the Godfrey Daniels coffee house as the opening act for various musicians who toured there. These included Nanci Griffith, Bill Morrissey, Claudia Schmidt and Jack Hardy.
In 1984, Gorka took first place at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Since then he has toured with artists such as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Michael Manring, Christine Lavin, Dave Van Ronk, Cliff Eberhardt, David Massengill, Frank Christian and Lucy Kaplansky.
As of 2005, he was residing in the St. Croix Valley area near Saint Paul, Minnesota.
In 2008, Gorka decided to return to Europe for the first time in fourteen years. In October, he played four times in the Netherlands, he played live on VPRO radio and he did a session for the John Gorka video site.
In 2009, Gorka toured in the USA but also in Ireland and the Netherlands. In October, Red House Records released the CD "So Dark You See." Gorka's latest installment is considered a more intimate, vocal and guitar-centered record than the last two.
Discography 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
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers- -thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
lemonade kid
Posted - 05/08/2013 : 21:03:22A song for all fallen soldiers..... This song was originally a poem written during WWII, and John Gorka put it to music. I (not me, lk) found this version of the song, and put the images to it as a tribute. --youtube LET THEM IN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0jKD48TrW8
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers- -thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers- -thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers- -thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers- -thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
