Famed folk artist John Gorka will be in the spotlight at New hope Winery on Sunday, Dec. 11. Gorka is promoting his new/old album “Before Beginning: The Unreleased ‘I Know’ – Nashville, 1985” on Red House Records.
Originally from New Jersey, Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who got his start at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem. Though small, the neighborhood coffeehouse is one of the oldest music venues in the U.S. (after John & Peter’s, of course).
In the late 1970s, Gorka was attending Moravian College in Bethlehem, but music held a much stronger attraction for him than philosophy and history.
“Gorka soon found himself living in Godfrey Daniels’ basement and acting as resident MC and sound man,” say his promoters. It was there he was able to meet folk icons like Stan Rogers, Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton and Claudia Schmidt. Their brand of folk music inspired him to perform, first as an opener for visiting acts. Another influence was Jack Hardy’s legendary Fast Folk circle in New York City.
Folk meccas like Texas’ Kerrville Folk Festival (where he won the New Folk Award in 1984) and Boston followed, and his deep, idiosyncratic voice and insightful lyrics began to draw attention. In 1987, Minnesota-based Red House Records signed Gorka on and produced the well-received “I Know.”
In 1989, he switched labels to High Street Records, and ultimately recorded five albums over the next seven years: “Land of the Bottom Line,” “Jack’s Crows,” “Temporary Road,” “Out of the Valley” and “Between Five and Seven.” He soon became recognized as one of the members of the “New Folk” movement.
Nanci Griffith, Mary Black and Maura O’Connell have covered Gorka’s songs, and he has appeared on Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown, and 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.
“Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know – Nashville, 1985” contains never-before-
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