Meeting John Gorka: One of My Favorite Singer/Songwriters

I first heard John Gorka in 2003 when I was a freshman in High School. I immediately took a liking to his rich baratone singing voice and percussive and fingerpicked guitar playing. I first saw John Gorka live in the Summer of 2004 at Upper Merion Park in King of Prussia PA. Since then I have seen him around 5 times and every show has been incredible. I have been lucky enough to meet John Gorka a couple of times. What I found amazing is that John Gorka seems to be the same person in real life as his is on stage. He is incredibly humble and kind. I remember I first met him in January of 2005, on a cold Sunday night at Godfry Daniel's Coffee House in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. I went up to him before his set and asked him to sign my John Gorka songbook. I told him that I had figured out how to play his song "Land of the Bottom Line" but I was still working on "The Gypsy Life" song. He retorted "I'm still working on Gypsy Life". He was very kind and was happy to sign my songbook which I still cherish. Another John Gorka encounter is perhaps even more memerable. It was Father's Day weekend in 2006 and my Dad and I saw John Gorka again at the Upper Merian Township Park. After the concert I went up to John Gorka and told him how much he has influenced me musically. I told him that my guitar teacher and I worked out a few of his songs and we call John Gorka songs "Gorks". He got a kick out of that. Anyway, I told John that there was a particular riff in one of his songs "Raven in the Storm." I asked him how he played it and to my surprise he said he would show me if I waited a couple of minutes for him to finish signing CDs and such. So I anxiously waited a few minutes and finally John came over to me and we moved off the stage to a nearby bench. John sat down and began to show me the riff to the song. He played the riff a few times, and explained what he was doing. It was an incredible experience to have one of my favorite singer/songwriter's showing me how to play one of his songs. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
Check out John Gorka's music: I recommend definitely looking for "Temporary Road", although it is out of print, you should be able to find it cheap and definity look for his "Jack's Crows" album. Great music by a great performer.



Here's my performance of "Promnight In Pigtown" one of my all time favorite John Gorka songs. It has everything that I love about John Gorka's music: Clever word play, great melody and wonderful musicianship. Enjoy.