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John Gorka Visits the Lizzie Rose Music Room · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 0:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It would seem that today's guest and I have a special connection, but I won't spoil the surprise.
• 0:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You'll just have to listen to learn what it is.
• 0:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Rolling Stone has called him the leading singer-songwriter of the New Folk Movement.
• 0:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: New Jersey's own John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who is most comfortable with a guitar in hand.
• 0:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: As a matter of fact, that's my favorite part of this interview.
• 0:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You may hear him strum the guitar occasionally throughout the piece as we chat and I'm not just referring to the live performances I was treated to.
• 0:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You heard that right.
• 0:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Gorka surprised me with not one, but three live serenades, including my favorites of his.
• 0:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm from New Jersey and, oh, abraham, I think this is an episode you won't want to miss.
• 0:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have to say I'm really excited to talk to you because I heard that you're from Colonia, new Jersey.
• 1:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I am Absolutely.
• 1:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, I grew up there.
• 1:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's where I grew up too.
• 1:06
  John Gorka: Yes, did you go to Colonia High?
• 1:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did.
• 1:09
  John Gorka: Wow.
• 1:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes.
• 1:11
  John Gorka: Well, that's funny Wow.
• 1:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't hear of a lot of people from Colonia, I mean, aside from the people that I went to high school with right.
• 1:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So it's exciting when I hear someone else is from Colonia and I heard it in your song, which is my favorite song oh, Abraham.
• 1:26
  John Gorka: Oh, abraham, right yes.
• 1:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I get so excited.
• 1:30
  John Gorka: Wood Avenue between Inman and New Dover yeah.
• 1:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, I love that so much.
• 1:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: My friend, one of my best friends, actually grew up on Wood.
• 1:41
  John Gorka: Avenue, so I headed to Wood Avenue very often.
• 1:43
  John Gorka: Oh wow, yeah, I think.
• 1:44
  John Gorka: Apparently the house I grew up in has been bulldozed and made into a cul-de-sac so I can't really go home again.
• 1:53
  John Gorka: But friends of mine got some soil from that and gave me a little sample, so I've got that little home dirt.
• 2:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's so sweet.
• 2:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So did you grow up on Wood Ave.
• 2:07
  John Gorka: Yes, yeah, 800 Wood Avenue.
• 2:10
  John Gorka: Yeah.
• 2:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, my God, that's so close.
• 2:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: All right, I'm actually not going to say that, because I'll give away where my friend lives but very nearby, so I think I know exactly where you're talking about.
• 2:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, that was actually really disappointing when they bulldozed that area, but I still love it there.
• 2:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I actually don't live very far, so New Jersey is still home for me.
• 2:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Where are you now?
• 2:30
  John Gorka: I'm in Minnesota.
• 2:31
  John Gorka: Minnesota, I've been here since 96.
• 2:34
  John Gorka: Is there a big folk scene out in Minnesota?
• 2:47
  John Gorka: I've's a lot of good, good artists and musicians and uh some good studios and uh some good places to play.
• 2:50
  John Gorka: So yeah, I think it's, I think it's okay that's great, but you'll always be from new jersey.
• 2:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It will always be yes no matter what and this is the jersey arts podcast.
• 2:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I love talking about uh, about jersey and two folks from New Jersey.
• 3:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I happen to love your song.
• 3:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm From New Jersey.
• 3:06
  John Gorka: All right.
• 3:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Super relatable.
• 3:10
  John Gorka: I've got a guitar here if you want me to play anything at any point.
• 3:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh my God, would you.
• 3:15
  John Gorka: We can do a quick sound check.
• 3:16
  John Gorka: Let's see Absolutely.
• 3:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, I'm already in love with you, thank you.
• 3:21
  John Gorka: I'll do the New Jersey song.
• 3:22
  John Gorka: I wrote this after reading Richard Ford's book the Sports Writer, where he's a sports writer based in New Jersey, and there's something about it crystallized and it's not.
• 3:37
  John Gorka: This does not apply universally in New Jersey, but I think there is a segment where it's true, for Okay, stop me if the voice is weird or anything.
• 3:58
  John Gorka: I'm from New Jersey.
• 4:00
  John Gorka: I don't expect too much.
• 4:03
  John Gorka: If the world ended today, I would adjust.
• 4:08
  John Gorka: I'm from New Jersey.
• 4:11
  John Gorka: No, I don't talk that way.
• 4:15
  John Gorka: I watched too much TV when I was young.
• 4:20
  John Gorka: I'm from New Jersey, my mom's Italian.
• 4:26
  John Gorka: I've read those mafia books.
• 4:30
  John Gorka: We don't belong.
• 4:32
  John Gorka: There were girls from New Jersey who had that great big hair Once found in shopping malls.
• 4:43
  John Gorka: I will take you there.
• 4:45
  John Gorka: I'm from New Jersey.
• 4:58
  John Gorka: It's not like Texas.
• 5:01
  John Gorka: No, there is no mystery.
• 5:04
  John Gorka: I can't pretend I'm from New Jersey.
• 5:14
  John Gorka: It's like Ohio, but even more so.
• 5:19
  John Gorka: Imagine that I know which exit and where I'm bound.
• 5:26
  John Gorka: Tolls on the parkway.
• 5:29
  John Gorka: They will slow you down.
• 5:32
  John Gorka: New Jersey people.
• 5:45
  John Gorka: They will surprise you Cause they're not expected to do too much.
• 5:53
  John Gorka: They will try harder, they may go further, cause they never think that they are good enough.
• 6:05
  John Gorka: I'm from New Jersey.
• 6:08
  John Gorka: I don't expect too much.
• 6:12
  John Gorka: If the world ended today, I would adjust, I would adjust, I would adjust.
• 6:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Can I just tell you you fulfilled a dream of mine.
• 6:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have always wanted to be serenaded.
• 6:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just got my own private concert.
• 6:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know if you can tell, but that made me cry.
• 6:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, that's really nice.
• 6:39
  John Gorka: Well, thank you.
• 6:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, that was so good.
• 6:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that song and it's so relatable for so many reasons, but I love that line.
• 6:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If the world ended today, yeah.
• 6:51
  John Gorka: So yeah, kind of adjusting now.
• 6:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 6:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh my God, thank you for that, really Thank you, yeah, but let's talk about your music, because you've got a lot of really wonderful songs, and I myself am not a musician.
• 7:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I always ask these questions of artists sure, how do you, how do you find your sound, how did you find your way to folk music?
• 7:16
  John Gorka: um, I think I first wanted to be a banjo player so that the um, I love the sound of the and I got the wrong kind of banjo.
• 7:25
  John Gorka: The first banjo I got was a tenor banjo and I realized that's not the kind of I really wanted to learn, like Earl Scruggs style, which is a five-string banjo, and I love that sound.
• 7:36
  John Gorka: I love hearing them on the Beverly Hillbillies and the soundtrack to Bonnie and Clyde the soundtrack to Bonnie and Clyde, and then in 73, I think that's when Deliverance, the theme song to Deliverance came out the Dueling Banjos.
• 7:51
  John Gorka: So I just loved the sound of the banjo and I picked up the guitar about six months later.
• 8:00
  John Gorka: My brother plays guitar and so I started playing guitar.
• 8:03
  John Gorka: He showed me some chords and he had a bunch of song books that he let me borrow and I started writing songs pretty much right away because I think I knew I wanted to be a writer before I knew music was going to be the way and I thought when I started to write songs I just wanted to see if I could and I started trying to do it a little bit.
• 8:27
  John Gorka: I felt like the combination of words and music was much more powerful than words alone, at least the way I could express them.
• 8:36
  John Gorka: I'm not the most outgoing person, I'm pretty shy and socially awkward.
• 8:46
  John Gorka: So music, it was kind of my way out and a way of reaching other people in a way that I was more or less comfortable with.
• 8:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I think that's really the beauty of music, because that's where your voice is most comfortable and where you're able to tell stories.
• 9:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, and I saw that you, you had studied initially philosophy and history.
• 9:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Is that correct?
• 9:09
  John Gorka: That's right.
• 9:10
  John Gorka: Yes, at Moravian College in Bethlehem.
• 9:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I feel like that.
• 9:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Maybe it's an assumption on my part, but I feel like that must have played well into your musical journey, because you're writing stories right.
• 9:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So both of those things, I think, are very helpful, I think.
• 9:24
  John Gorka: I think it did.
• 9:25
  John Gorka: I love history, you know, and I often just say that I was a philosophy major because that's funnier, but I love the big ideas, the big questions.
• 9:36
  John Gorka: So that and history.
• 9:38
  John Gorka: I thought I wanted to study stuff that would be hard for me to learn on my own.
• 9:43
  John Gorka: So I started writing songs in high school and continued through.
• 9:50
  John Gorka: I met some fellow musicians at Moravian Doug Anderson and Russ Rentler, and later Richard Schindel.
• 10:00
  John Gorka: We formed the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band and we would meet every Friday at Doug's apartment.
• 10:09
  John Gorka: He was a little older than us, he was married and had an apartment we would go to off campus and that was lots of fun.
• 10:16
  John Gorka: He knew hundreds of songs and was generous with lending his record collection.
• 10:21
  John Gorka: And then he took me to Godfrey Daniels Coffee House in probably some time, because I met Russ Rentler the very first night of the Moravian College.
• 10:32
  John Gorka: They had a freshman orientation coffee house and they invited incoming freshmen to perform if they want to.
• 10:42
  John Gorka: So I played and Doug Anderson, who was in the audience, saw Russ Rentler who played mandolin and me who playing banjo.
• 10:49
  John Gorka: He thought he saw the makings of a bluegrass band.
• 10:52
  John Gorka: So that was the beginning of the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band.
• 10:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 10:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think I mean look like I said, I'm not a musician so sometimes I get my words mixed up, but bluegrass and folk are two separate genres.
• 11:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, yeah, pretty much, but closely related.
• 11:10
  John Gorka: There's some related.
• 11:11
  John Gorka: You know it's related in a lot of the same instruments.
• 11:14
  John Gorka: You know the styles are a little different but using acoustic instruments and the Resi Desi Spasm Band wasn't a very traditional bluegrass band but we did some of the songs that were kind of standards.
• 11:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that kind of music, especially nowadays.
• 11:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, the world is the world is always kind of crazy.
• 11:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think we just hear more about it now because of social media and the news in our palms.
• 11:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I really turn to music that I find soothing.
• 11:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, and your music does that.
• 11:50
  John Gorka: Oh, thanks, that's what I hope, that you know.
• 11:53
  John Gorka: If my music has an effect, I hope it will make people feel less alone.
• 12:00
  John Gorka: I think that's my great hope.
• 12:02
  John Gorka: By doing music, I can help people feel less alone.
• 12:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely Well what you just did for me singing I'm from New Jersey.
• 12:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: To me, that absolutely made me feel less alone.
• 12:13
  John Gorka: Thank you oh thanks.
• 12:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that song, but I guess the question to you is who do you listen to when you need to be soothed?
• 12:22
  John Gorka: Oh, I think I probably play, for that helps me just to kind of figure out what's going on inside, you know, and pick up the instrument and hit a chord that I've played a million times, but whatever that moment it's something that feels different, and so I kind of keep going at it and see if it leads anywhere and see if any words come to mind.
• 12:49
  John Gorka: Usually, if I have lyrics, I can almost always come up with a tune, but it doesn't always work both the other way around.
• 13:00
  John Gorka: That's one of the things I ask other songwriters, you know, are they music first, words first, or both at the same time?
• 13:11
  John Gorka: Sometimes people say it was just the general idea or an image that starts things off, but the process is kind of endlessly fascinating and still mysterious to me.
• 13:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you ever get woken up in the middle of the night with an idea and you have to jump out of bed and write a song?
• 13:30
  John Gorka: I have done that A lot of the times.
• 13:33
  John Gorka: I monitor my thoughts as I'm going to sleep at night or waking up in the morning.
• 13:39
  John Gorka: Those seem to be the most productive time for lyrics and musically.
• 13:46
  John Gorka: Sound check times are a good time that I find myself playing something.
• 13:52
  John Gorka: You know, when I should be thinking about what I should be playing that night or that day, I find myself noodling and playing something I've not recorded, not not played before.
• 14:03
  John Gorka: It's like oh, what's this?
• 14:04
  John Gorka: So it's kind of an odd thing, but that's.
• 14:07
  John Gorka: I try to pay attention to that those times and try to note the whatever it was I was playing, if maybe recorded on the phone or that kind of thing, because the ideas will come and go.
• 14:22
  John Gorka: They'll come and stay and keep knocking at your door.
• 14:26
  John Gorka: Others will just kind of visit and if you're not receptive the idea will move on to someone else.
• 14:34
  John Gorka: My friend Eliza Gilkison says if the song, an idea comes to you and you kind of refuse it or you don't want to give it attention, they all default to Bob Dylan.
• 14:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you keep a notebook or a guitar by your nightstand if you need to wake up?
• 14:53
  John Gorka: Oh, I've got a guitar.
• 14:54
  John Gorka: I've got a guitar next to it, and if it turns out that I've got something, I'll try to record it somehow, because notebooks I like writing on rather than typing on a keyboard, I like writing in longhand.
• 15:11
  John Gorka: That seems to that kind of reminded me of that.
• 15:16
  John Gorka: You know, I took a course with Tom Paxton at the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina.
• 15:24
  John Gorka: I was one of the instructors there but I had some time so I was able to attend a couple classes.
• 15:32
  John Gorka: So I got to sit in on Tom Paxton's class several times and one of the things he had an exercise where he said his wife was a psychologist and she said that the act of writing pen or, you know, pen or pencil to paper, just that physical act, stimulates the creative part of your brain.
• 15:56
  John Gorka: So that's, it's a little bit.
• 15:58
  John Gorka: I think it's a little bit more effective than typing on a keyboard.
• 16:01
  John Gorka: So that that's something I try.
• 16:03
  John Gorka: We, we did an exercise and ended up coming up with a song out of it.
• 16:07
  John Gorka: So that that's uh, the, the, the process is, like I said, is endlessly fascinating and just those those things.
• 16:16
  John Gorka: And uh, the other thing, uh, for me was uh.
• 16:19
  John Gorka: That made a huge difference for me was meeting Jack Hardy at Godfrey Daniels Coffeehouse in June of 1979.
• 16:28
  John Gorka: He was the first person I met who wrote songs on a schedule.
• 16:31
  John Gorka: His schedule was to finish a song a week.
• 16:35
  John Gorka: I didn't know that songwriters could do that.
• 16:39
  John Gorka: I knew that fiction writers would try to get up and write a certain number of words a day, pages a day, whatever.
• 16:46
  John Gorka: But I didn't know songwriters did that.
• 16:47
  John Gorka: I said I just kind of wait for inspiration to strike.
• 16:51
  John Gorka: And he said that's a cop-out.
• 16:55
  John Gorka: If you work at it, even if you throw out you put yourself on a schedule, even if you throw out three-quarters of what you come up with, you're going to get better faster just by kind of exercising the writing muscles.
• 17:11
  John Gorka: So I started to.
• 17:11
  John Gorka: I did that.
• 17:12
  John Gorka: I thought song a week would was too ambitious.
• 17:15
  John Gorka: So I thought, okay, I'll do, I'll try to song a month.
• 17:17
  John Gorka: And after the first year I had more songs than months.
• 17:21
  John Gorka: So I went to two songs a month.
• 17:23
  John Gorka: So I had deadlines on the 15th and the end of the month and I stayed on that kind of a no.
• 17:30
  John Gorka: That was what I would shoot for many years until having kids.
• 17:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I should really adapt that because I'm a writer as well and I used to wait Well used to, I still do.
• 17:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wait for inspiration.
• 17:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That because I'm a writer as well and I used to wait, well used to, I still do.
• 17:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wait for inspiration.
• 17:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I like the idea of setting a deadline for write something once a month or twice a month.
• 17:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's great.
• 17:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I also feel really validated.
• 17:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You said your psychologist friend prefers, or that writing on paper actually stimulates a different part of the brain.
• 17:58
  John Gorka: I have so many notepads all over the house.
• 18:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I prefer you.
• 18:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I prefer pen to paper.
• 18:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I still do.
• 18:05
  John Gorka: Yeah, tom Paxton, his wife was a psychologist and she told him about that and he brought that into the class.
• 18:15
  John Gorka: So that was lots of fun.
• 18:17
  John Gorka: And what was I going to say?
• 18:19
  John Gorka: That kind of writing on a schedule thing.
• 18:23
  John Gorka: It's sometimes that just by kind of forcing yourself not just making some time to sit down with an empty space, you have to have kind of a clear physical space to allow new things to come in.
• 18:39
  John Gorka: Sometimes when you work at you know you show up every day and work at it you'll find inspiration halfway through the process.
• 18:48
  John Gorka: You know it's not there at the beginning, but just by kind of trying to come up with something you meet the inspiration then.
• 18:55
  John Gorka: So I like that idea.
• 18:57
  John Gorka: I think that Mary Oliver the poet said she would try to work at something every day and go for walks.
• 19:07
  John Gorka: And she said if you keep showing up, the muse learns to trust you.
• 19:12
  John Gorka: And I thought that's a great way of putting it.
• 19:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 19:19
  John Gorka: My jaw just literally dropped but, I, love that quote.
• 19:22
  John Gorka: Yeah, yeah, she has a poetry handbook, I think, and there was also another book that I'm spacing out at the moment.
• 19:33
  John Gorka: That was called, like, the Poetry Home Repair Manual.
• 19:36
  John Gorka: I'm forgetting his name, but that's also very inspiring.
• 19:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I will definitely look into that.
• 19:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think this led me to my next question, and it's something I ask every artist.
• 19:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But you've already given me a lot of advice, so it's okay if I'm putting you on the spot here, but I'd like to ask for those younger folks who are looking to get into the industry, who are looking to become musicians, the industry who are looking to become musicians what would you say to encourage them?
• 20:05
  John Gorka: I think that my son has taken an interest in writing songs and getting out there.
• 20:14
  John Gorka: I said that putting yourself on a schedule is kind of a good thing but you keep showing up, you know, in terms of going to open mics any place where you can, because I'm not a naturally comfortable performer.
• 20:29
  John Gorka: I just kind of forced myself to go to open mics, you know, multiple nights a week, just so it's like I'm still not all that comfortable performing but I've come to terms with my own discomfort just by working on it and you know, kind of having it come into muscle memory.
• 20:49
  John Gorka: But I think keep showing up, you know, and keep in touch with your instrument or your voice and check in regularly to see if the muse is in.
• 21:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Honestly, I find that kind of advice really comforting because I think so many artists are introverts or really uncomfortable being out there publicly.
• 21:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: They just want to share their work.
• 21:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But, it's admirable that you forced yourself to live in the discomfort and to be vulnerable.
• 21:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's brave.
• 21:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's really brave.
• 21:33
  John Gorka: I was in a place Godfrey Daniels Coffeehouse was a place where people listen.
• 21:36
  John Gorka: It's still there and people still come to listen to music there.
• 21:40
  John Gorka: It's still a great place and they'd have open mics on Sunday nights.
• 21:44
  John Gorka: It was a 10-minute walk from my dormitory and they'd have open mics on Sunday nights.
• 21:47
  John Gorka: It was a 10-minute walk from my dormitory and I remember one of the first times playing band.
• 21:51
  John Gorka: You know, I'd play fine in my room, you know, or in the basement of the dormitory, but then I'd get on stage and it's my hands.
• 22:01
  John Gorka: It was like whose hands are these?
• 22:03
  John Gorka: That's one of those things for performing.
• 22:06
  John Gorka: You have to just kind of do it so it becomes muscle memory rather than just your.
• 22:10
  John Gorka: You know, it's got to be kind of in your hands and in your singing, in your voice, so that you don't have to feel like you're creating something every second.
• 22:26
  John Gorka: I'm not sure if I'm making any sense.
• 22:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, you absolutely are making perfect sense.
• 22:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wish I had more interviews where someone has a guitar on their lap, because I would love to hear you strum as you talk, because I can tell that this is your safe space and you just keep reaching for.
• 22:47
  John Gorka: It 's it.
• 22:48
  John Gorka: That's what I feel like.
• 22:49
  John Gorka: Okay, I'm probably going to run out of things to say, but at least I'll have a song.
• 22:53
  John Gorka: There's a song I can.
• 22:54
  John Gorka: I can, I can probably get through, uh, at at the moment, maybe, maybe I should play a song.
• 22:59
  John Gorka: Maybe I'll try to play the O Abraham song oh okay, I will not stop you.
• 23:12
  John Gorka: I was reading about some of the things that Abraham Lincoln said and wrote and did and, at the same time, reading one of those Beat generation books about Jack Kerouac and his pals, and one of the things that it said about Jack Kerouac is that he was on a crew that helped to build the Pentagon.
• 23:39
  John Gorka: I just like the idea that it's called oh Abraham, oh Abraham.
• 23:51
  John Gorka: I see a penny and I pick it up.
• 23:53
  John Gorka: If not the money, I could use the luck, and if it's face down, then I turn it over Head forward.
• 24:05
  John Gorka: Avenue between Inman and New Dover, back to my hometown.
• 24:14
  John Gorka: Gas was cheaper where I'm from, but the driving's not so good.
• 24:31
  John Gorka: People go and stay where they should not and they don't do it like I would would.
• 24:58
  John Gorka: Work is not the same as before.
• 24:58
  John Gorka: There's more software hands in this hardware store.
• 25:01
  John Gorka: Yeah, yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Abraham.
• 25:11
  John Gorka: Look at all the money now.
• 25:13
  John Gorka: Oh, abraham, goodnight it's your party.
• 25:22
  John Gorka: But I'll cry if I want to.
• 25:24
  John Gorka: I wouldn't care how much they had, if they would only do what's right, not far right.
• 25:36
  John Gorka: I was born by a Kerouac stream, under Eisenhower skies.
• 25:52
  John Gorka: They saw freedom as a big idea.
• 25:58
  John Gorka: Now it was right before my eyes.
• 26:03
  John Gorka: They say Jack helped to build the Pentagon and I built the interstate, and we are off and on.
• 26:18
  John Gorka: Yeah, yeah, oh, oh Abraham.
• 26:26
  John Gorka: Oh, abraham, was it all about the money then?
• 26:33
  John Gorka: Oh, abraham, goodnight it's your party.
• 26:41
  John Gorka: But I'll cry if I want to, I'll power it, I want to, all powered up and charmed with might.
• 26:48
  John Gorka: So we are right.
• 26:50
  John Gorka: We're always right.
• 26:52
  John Gorka: Right, we're right.
• 27:03
  John Gorka: They're wrong.
• 27:04
  John Gorka: Let them get their own song.
• 27:07
  John Gorka: I see a penny and I pick it up.
• 27:18
  John Gorka: Ninety-nine more and I have a buck.
• 27:23
  John Gorka: Abe, you were born in old Kentucky.
• 27:29
  John Gorka: We still miss you here.
• 27:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: By far the best day of my life.
• 27:45
  John Gorka: I've had so many good wives now.
• 27:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you so so much.
• 27:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, you're welcome.
• 27:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're going to be in New Jersey soon.
• 27:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're going to be at the Lizzy Rose Music Room.
• 27:54
  John Gorka: Yeah, very nice place yeah.
• 27:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What can we look?
• 27:57
  John Gorka: forward to.
• 27:57
  John Gorka: Yeah, I'll probably, you know, play some favorites.
• 28:02
  John Gorka: You know I have a new record coming out, probably later this year.
• 28:08
  John Gorka: It's called Unentitled.
• 28:10
  John Gorka: It's called Unentitled and uh, and it's got some new new songs and some old, older songs that, uh, that I never either never finished recording or they didn't have a place in the in those other records.
• 28:25
  John Gorka: So, but I've got some of my old friends Lucy Kaplansky sings on it, eliza Gilkyson, alice Peacock, kathleen Johnson, a fantastic singer, sings on it, and some of the players that I've worked with before in Minneapolis.
• 28:43
  John Gorka: Yeah, so at the Lizzie Rose I'll just be doing a, a, a variety of things.
• 28:49
  John Gorka: You know I don't come, I say I read, I have a, I write up a set list every night, but not till after, uh, so it'll be, it'll be.
• 28:57
  John Gorka: I'll probably do some requests and uh, and some people's favorites and uh and and songs that feel right to do at the moment.
• 29:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's great.
• 29:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I like the live in the moment right.
• 29:11
  John Gorka: Yeah, yeah, because that's David Bromberg said that the reason why he was successful.
• 29:18
  John Gorka: He said it wasn't because he was a great guitar player or a great singer, which I think.
• 29:24
  John Gorka: I disagree on both of those things.
• 29:27
  John Gorka: He said he was successful because he knew what song to play.
• 29:31
  John Gorka: Next, everything's new all the time.
• 29:33
  John Gorka: Every second is new.
• 29:35
  John Gorka: There's Rick Rubin's book about the creative act.
• 29:39
  John Gorka: It's also a very inspiring book for songwriters, anybody, any artist.
• 29:45
  John Gorka: One of the things he said was that you know, pay attention to what's going on right now because it's.
• 29:52
  John Gorka: You know.
• 29:53
  John Gorka: It might seem like it was a situation that you've been in before, but the outside world is changing every second.
• 30:03
  John Gorka: Internally, your body is changing, replacing new cells, and so there's new stuff going inside and out.
• 30:11
  John Gorka: So just remember that and even if things didn't work out in the past, you've got a new beginning every second.
• 30:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Ain't that the truth?
• 30:22
  John Gorka: It's a great book.
• 30:23
  John Gorka: I love that book and also Shinichi Suzuki's book Nurtured by Love.
• 30:29
  John Gorka: He's the one who invented the Suzuki method, where kids start, you know, kids who can't read music.
• 30:37
  John Gorka: In sixth grade I took viola using my grandfather's violin restrung, and that you know, because you start playing music right away.
• 30:47
  John Gorka: Play, you know it's like.
• 30:48
  John Gorka: The idea is that people learn to speak and understand the language before they learn how to write it.
• 30:55
  John Gorka: Uh, read or write it so uh that that.
• 30:58
  John Gorka: That was an inspiring book.
• 31:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: that, and Rick Rick Rubin's book, uh you've given some really great advice, real gems today.
• 31:06
  John Gorka: Thank you, so so much it's been a real pleasure it's been very fun.
• 31:11
  John Gorka: Should I play us out please?
• 31:13
  John Gorka: How about this?
• 31:17
  John Gorka: It's just a short thing.
• 31:18
  John Gorka: It's just a.
• 31:20
  John Gorka: It's called, if not, it's just four lines if not us, not them.
• 31:40
  John Gorka: If not now, then when?
• 31:43
  John Gorka: If not here nor there, if not this world, then where?
• 31:50
  John Gorka: If not us, not them.
• 31:53
  John Gorka: If not now, then when?
• 31:57
  John Gorka: If not here nor there, if not this world, then where?
• 32:04
  John Gorka: If not us, not them.
• 32:28
  John Gorka: If not now, then when?
• 32:30
  John Gorka: If not here nor there.
• 32:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What a treat, three live performances in one short podcast.
• 32:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And that was just a taste of the soul-soothing music of John Gorka, but you can see him in all his glory at the Lizzie Rose Music Room on June 4th at 7.30pm.
• 32:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information, be sure to visit LizzieRoseMusic.
• 32:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: com.
• 32:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends.
• 33:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts.
• 33:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: com.
• 33:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 33:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 33:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 33:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez, and my thanks, of course, to John Gorka for speaking with me today.
• 33:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 33:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.