I often divide my folk music collection into Roots, Branches and Leaves. The roots are artists who I listened to in the 560s and 70s. The branches are folks I discovered in the 80s through 2010. Finally, the leaves are musicians I have discovered since 2010, when I started to write about music. Today I listened to the music from one of those branches, John Gorka.
I first encounter the music of John Gorka on Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music a compilations disc Windham Hill released in 1990. The album was designed to introduce listeners to a new crop of young singer-songwriters….Some of the artists included on the compilation went on to major label record deals. Others remained fairly obscure. Windham Hill began long term relationships with some of the artists. John Gorka said the following about the album….
.…: “Windham Hill decided to include one of my songs on the first Legacy songwriters compilation. Before it was even released, Will Ackerman called to say that they would like me to record for them. Land of the Bottom Line came out shortly thereafter….
Likewise, it wasn’t too long after I found that I bought my first John Gorka album which was the aforementioned Land of the Bottom Line. As a sidenote, Bill Morrissey also appeared on the album and it was long after that I bought Inside which was the first Bill Morrissey album I bought
Land of the Bottom Line
Anyway , let’s get back to Land of the Bottom Line. . Like many of my folk albums, I haven’t listened to this album for a long time. As a result, I have forgotten what a terrific album it is! From Wikipedia:
Land of the Bottom Line is the second album by contemporary folk singer-songwriter John Gorka. The album was also Gorka’s major label debut for High Street Records/Windham Hill Records. The album was highly acclaimed by critics at the time, and continues to be cited by some as Gorka’s finest work. The album’s fifteen tracks and near hour-long length also provided an unusually large amount of music for a recording of that era. As Sing Out! editor Mark Moss noted in a review, the topics covered run “the gamut of John’s favorite subjects: love, hard luck, local characters, and more.”[3]
John Gorka has the ability to say a lot with a few words. And that ability is fully on display with the opening line from “Land of the Bottom Line.”….
I couldn’t bribe a wino on what I used to make
My Fortune was as sure as the wind
But I was free to wonder and time was on my hands
It was mine to burn and to bend
There are a ton of great songs on the 15 song album. The playlist on the left sidebar includes my top six songs from the album. They are “Land of the Bottom Line”, “Stranger in My Driver Seat”, “Dream Street”. “The Sentinel”, “I Saw a Stranger with Your Hair” and “Armed with a Broken Heart”.
Links for the Further Explorations of the Music of John Gorka
Artist Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Amazon
Here’s John performing “The Sentinel” from Land of the Bottom Line
