John Gorka

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^{Jack Hardy (singer-songwriter)}.

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^{Frank Christian (singer-songwriter)} 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.
Studio albums

*I Know^{I Know (John Gorka album)} (Red House Records, 1987)
*Land of the Bottom Line (Windham Hill/High Street^{High Street Records}, 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 Records, 1998)
*The Company You Keep (Red House Records, 2001)
*Old Futures Gone (Red House Records, 2003)
*Writing in the Margins (Red House Records, 2006)
*So Dark You See (Red House Records, 2009)

"Best of" albums

*Pure John Gorka (Windham Hill, 2006)

EPs

*Motor Folkin' (Windham Hill/High Street, 1994)

DVD

*The Gypsy Life (AIX Records, 2007)

On various artists compilations

* See various issues of Fast Folk Musical Magazine for early recordings.
* "I Saw a Stranger with Your Hair" on Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music (Windham Hill, 1989)
* "Christmas Bells^{I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day}", on A Winter's Solstice, Vol. III (Windham Hill, 1990)
* "Bracero" on What's That I Hear?: The Songs of Phil Ochs (Sliced Bread, 1998)
* Gorka's recording of Eric Andersen's "Thirsty Boots" appeared on Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 1960s (Astor Place Records, 1999), a compilation of re-recorded songs from the 1960s folk revival.