11142 - JOHN GORKA - BRIGHT SIDE OF DOWN (2014)
JOHN GORKA
''BRIGHT SIDE OF DOWN''
MARCH 3 2014
35:03
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1 Holed Up Mason City 02:49
2 Bright Side of Down 03:36
3 High Horse 03:00
4 More Than One 03:07
5 She's That Kind of Mystery 03:32 (Bill Morrissey)
6 Outnumbered 02:05
7 Don't Judge a Life 03:15
8 Honeybee 01:47
9 Procrastination Blues 03:55
10 Thirstier Wind 02:34
11 Mind to Think 02:16
12 Really Spring 03:01
Tracks By Gorka, Except 5
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J.T. Bates/Drums, Percussion
Antje Duvekot/Vocals
Dirk Freymuth/Bouzouki, Guitar (Electric), Hi String Guitar
Rob Genadek/Drums,Percussion
Eliza Gilkyson/Vocals
John Gorka/Banjo, Guitar (Acoustic), Hi String Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Gordy Johnson/Bass (Acoustic)
Michael Johnson/Vocals
Lucy Kaplansky/Vocals
Michael Manring/Bass (Electric)
Cale Baglyos Reed/Fiddle
Claudia Schmidt/Vocals
Amilia Spicer/Vocals
Enrique Toussaint/Bass (Electric)
Jeff Victor/Keyboards
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OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
From New Jersey, John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who got his start at a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania. Though small, Godfrey Daniels was and is one of the oldest and most venerable music institutions and has long been a hangout for music lovers and aspiring musicians. In the late 1970’s, John was was one of these aspiring musicians. Although his academic coursework at Moravian College lay in Philosophy and History, music began to offer paramount enticements. Soon he found himself living in the club’s basement and acting as resident MC and sound man, encountering legendary folk troubadours like Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers, Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton and Claudia Schmidt. Their brand of folk-inspired acoustic music inspired him, and before long he was performing his own songs – mostly as an opener for visiting acts. Soon he started traveling to New York City, where Jack Hardy’s legendary Fast Folk circle (a breeding ground for many a major singer-songwriter) became a powerful source of education and encouragement. Folk meccas like Texas’ Kerrville Folk Festival (where he won the New Folk Award in 1984) and Boston followed, and his stunningly soulful baritone voice and original songwriting began turning heads. Those who had at one time inspired him – Suzanne Vega, Bill Morrissey, Nanci Griffith, Christine Lavin, Shawn Colvin – had become his peers.
In 1987, the young Minnesota-based Red House Records caught wind of John’s talents and released his first album, I Know, to popular and critical acclaim. With unusual drive and focus, John hit the ground running and, when an offer came from Windham Hill’s Will Ackerman in 1989, he signed with that label’s imprint, High Street Records. He proceeded to record five albums with High Street over the next seven years: Land of the Bottom Line, Jack’s Crows, Temporary Road, Out of the Valley and Between Five and Seven. His albums and his touring (over 150 nights a year at times) brought new accolades for his craft. His rich multifaceted songs full of depth, beauty and emotion gained increasing attention from critics and audiences across the country, as well as in Europe where his tours led him through Italy, Belgium, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland and Germany. He also started sharing tours with many notable friends—Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter among them. All this brought his music to an ever-widening audience. His video for the single “When She Kisses Me” found a long-term rotation on VH-1’s “Current Country,” as well as on CMT and the Nashville Network.
In 1998, after five successful recordings and seven years at Windham Hill/High Street, John felt the need for a change and decided to return to his musical roots at Red House Records. The choice was driven, in part, by the artistic integrity that the label represents in an industry where the business of music too often takes precedence. The 1998 release After Yesterday marked a decidedly different attitude towards making music for John, and his next release The Company You Keep held fast to his tradition of fine songwriting, yet moved forward down new avenues. Its fourteen songs displays John’s creative use of lyrics and attention to detail. Andy Stochansky played drums and shared production credits with John and Rob Genadek. Ani DiFranco, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucy Kaplansky and Patty Larkin contributed stellar guitar work and vocals to this fan favorite. Old Futures Gone was informed by his life as husband and father of two young children and also contained the colorful experience of many hard years on the road. Writing in the Margins followed in 2006 and was an engaging collection of sweet and serious songs that spanned many musical genres—folk, pop, country and soul—and featured guest vocalists Nanci Griffith, Lucy Kaplansky and Alice Peacock. Now with this, his 11th studio album, he returns to his roots with So Dark You See, his most compelling and traditional album to date.
In addition to his 11 critically acclaimed albums, John released a collector’s edition box featuring a hi-definition DVD and companion CD called The Gypsy Life. Windham Hill also released a collection of John’s greatest hits from the label called Pure John Gorka. In 2010, he also released an album with his friends and Red House label-mates Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson under the name Red Horse. Getting high praise from critics and fans alike, it landed on the Billboard Folk Charts and was one of the most played albums on folk radio.
Many well known artists have recorded and/or performed John Gorka songs, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Mary Black and Maura O’Connell. John has graced the stage of Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown and has appeared on CNN. His new song “Where No Monuments Stand” is featured in the upcoming documentary Every War Has Two Losers, about activist and Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford (1914-1993).
John Gorka lives in Minnesota and when not on the road, he enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He continues to tour, playing festivals, theaters and clubs all over North America and Europe.
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REVIEW/AMG
Thom Jurek
Bright Side of Down is singer and songwriter John Gorka's first set of new studio material since 2009's So Dark You See. Once more produced by Rob Grenadek, it features his regular band and some well-known friends. Gorka's work has developed along a particular line over the last two decades. He pays close attention to the details in his craft -- rhyme, musical economy, tight melodies -- and whether what's in a song is true to it. "Holed Up in Mason City," with its shuffling meld of acoustic and electric guitars, brushed drums, and accordion, is about the fate of enduring a pre-season blizzard. Told in the first person, musically it owes a small debt to Richard Thompson, which is hardly a bad thing. Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson contribute harmonies to the melancholy title track. While it's a sad song, Gorka's protagonist never sounds as if he feels sorry for himself. "High Horse" is the reverse. He offers traces of bitter irony in the aftermath of a broken relationship and his protagonist intimates his health is failing while everything else is going to hell. Gorka expresses empathy for his character, but he's not necessarily buying it. He delivers a fine reading of Bill Morrissey's "She's That Kind of Mystery." With sparse accompaniment, Gorka finds the world-weariness in the author's intent, lets it come to the fore, and still manages to reveal the romantic magic in its core, thanks in part to Amilia Spicer's hovering backing vocal. Closer "Really Spring" is among the most tender songs that Gorka's written, with a simple four-chord figure framed by the spectral yet irrepressible harmony vocal of Antje Duvekot. It captures the wistfulness of spring's past and the longing for its arrival and renewal, and the knowing that knowing winter always has one last trick up its sleeve. Bright Side of Down should resonate with Gorka's fans and those of modern American folk music.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Jason Ankeny
I Know
A singer/songwriter famed for his rich, expressive baritone, New Jersey native John Gorka was one of the leading lights of the new folk movement. Gorka began his career while attending college in Pennsylvania in the early '80s, appearing at open-mike nights at a local coffeehouse before eventually forming his own group, the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band. Soon he hit the road, performing up and down the Eastern Seaboard before finally settling in Texas and winning the Kerrville Folk Festival's prestigious New Folk Award in 1984. In 1987, Gorka cut his debut album, I Know, for the Red House label, winning acclaim for his songs' subtle wit and acute character observations. After a move to Windham Hill, he issued 1990's Land of the Bottom Line, followed two years later by Jack's Crows. With 1993's Temporary Road, Gorka garnered significant airplay from country outlets with the single and video "When She Kisses Me," resulting in tours supporting Mary Chapin Carpenter and Nanci Griffith. For 1994's Out of the Valley, Gorka traveled to Nashville to team with producer John Jennings, who recruited guests including Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, guitarist Leo Kottke, and Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks; Between Five and Seven followed in 1996, and two years later he returned with After Yesterday. Company You Keep, which followed in early 2001, featured guest spots from Carpenter, Patty Larkin, and Lucy Kaplansky. 2003 saw the release of the typically introspective Old Futures Gone. It was followed in 2006 by Writing in the Margins. So Dark You See appeared in 2009, and Red Horse, a collaborative album with Eliza Gilkyson and Lucy Kaplansky, followed in 2010. Gorka didn't record again for a few years, though he did keep up a steady touring schedule. In March of 2014, he re-emerged with The Bright Side of Down.
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