West Side Folk is thrilled to announce that it will present a very special concert to benefit Kansas Public Radio, which recently received a $100,000 budget cut that represents about 20 percent of the annual funding KPR receives from the University of Kansas. John Gorka is playing for reduced fees to do his part to help KPR, and all profits from this concert will go to KPR.
We are thrilled to bring John Gorka back to Lawrence for the first time in nine years!
Hailing from New Jersey, but forged in the Greenwich Village Fast Folk scene, he honed his craft and persona into an unmistakable image. The shy, wry, insightful, and yes, sensitive singer-songwriter has been copied and parodied. But the old coat he wove still fits and still suits him well. The old songs ring as true as they ever did, and the new ones are just as good.
Rolling Stone called him “the leading singer/songwriter of the New Folk movement” while the Boston Globe said “Gorka is widely heralded for the sophisticated intelligence and provocative originality of his songs.” The New York Times said: “Listening to John Gorka, one can get goosebumps all over. There are many reasons: fresh lyrics, a stunning emotional baritone and his twisted humor.”
Sky Smeed will open for John Gorka. No Depression magazine said “Smeed evokes that singer/songwriter corner of 1971 that held both John Prine and Steve Goodman’s self-titled debuts. There’s a lot of humor and a comparable gentleness in 'Drive All Night,' but like those two records, there’s also a range of emotion that can sting.”