PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk singer/songwriter John Gorka at Next Stage on Sunday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Gorka is perhaps the quintessential iconic singer/songwriter of the 1980s folk scene. Hailing from New Jersey, he honed his craft and persona as a shy, wry, and insightful singer/songwriter in the Greenwich Village “Fast Folk” and Boston music scenes. Gorka got his start at Godfrey Daniels, a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania that is one of the oldest and most venerable music institutions in the country, according to a news release.
After releasing his first album with Minnesota-based Red House Records in 1987, he recorded five albums with Windham Hill's Will Ackerman's High Street Records between 1989 and 1996. Since then he has released six more solo albums on Red House, plus one with label-mates Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson under the name Red Horse.
He continues to tour, playing festivals, theaters, and clubs all over North America and Europe. Rolling Stone magazine has called him “the leading singer-songwriter of the New Folk Movement.”
Many artists have recorded or performed John Gorka songs, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Mary Black, and Maura O'Connell. Gorka has graced the stage of Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, and eTown, and has appeared on CNN. His song “Where No Monument Stands” is featured in the documentary Every War Has Two Losers, about activist and Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford.