John Gorka


John Gorka is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."

Personal life

Gorka was raised in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, where he attended Colonia High School.
He studied philosophy and history at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and graduated from there in 1980.
As of 2005, he was residing in the St. Croix Valley area near Saint Paul, Minnesota.
His son Joe Gorka released his first EP, called Evergreen, on June 1, 2025.

Career

Gorka formed the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band with Doug Anderson and Russ Rentler, which would also include guitarist Richard Shindell. After graduating from Moravian, he began performing solo at Godfrey Daniels coffee house in South Bethlehem as the opening act for various musicians including Nanci Griffith, Bill Morrissey, Claudia Schmidt and Jack Hardy. In 1984, Gorka was one of six winners chosen from the finalists in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Since then he has regularly toured Europe and North America.
In 1987, Gorka recorded his first album, I Know. It was released by Red Housebeginning a long association with that label. Although his next five albums were distributed by Windham Hill and High Street, he returned to Red House with 1998's After Yesterday and produced nine albums with them over the next twenty-seven yearsmost recently ,
He has appeared with artists such as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Michael Manring, Christine Lavin, Dave Van Ronk, Cliff Eberhardt, David Massengill, Frank Christian, Antje Duvekot, Meg Hutchinson, and Lucy Kaplansky. He joined with Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson to form the folk supergroup Red Horse in 2010, touring together and releasing a self-titled album on which they performed each other's compositions. Red Horse toured through July 2014.

Discography

Studio albums

Other releases

Promotional EPs
Remix albums
  • Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know - Nashville, 1985
DVD
Live CD/DVDs
  • '
  • '
Compilation albums
On various artists compilations