John Gorka (born 1958)is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what's 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 John Gorka decided to go to Europe again. After 14 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.
Gotta love the talent overall... Screw the videos..listen to the words
John Gorka, Springtime in Pennsylvania
Writing In The Margins (with introduction)
Love Is Our Cross To Bear
I Saw A Stranger With Your Hair (great lyrics!)
Armed With A Broken Heart
Anyone that knows me to any length will understand why I love this guy...
If I Could Forget To Breathe
I'm From New Jersey
Cypress Trees
Downtown Tonight
My all time favorite song from him;
Houses in the Fields
the last few farms are growing out of here...
And to prove it...
14 years ago
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