Write a commentFolk artist John Gorka’s upcoming show will be on Saturday, September 9 in Oswego, NY at the Oswego Music Hall. John is touring for his new/old album, Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know - Nashville, 1985, out now on Red House Records.
Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know - Nashville, 1985 contains never-before-heard studio versions of material that would later appear on Gorka’s Red House debut, I Know. Only 25 at the time of these recordings, Gorka had traveled to Nashville, TN to record with producer Jim Rooney (Nanci Griffith, John Prine) at Cowboy Jack Clements’ studio. The sessions featured a full band as well as guest vocals from fellow artists Lucy Kaplansky and Shawn Colvin, also members of the NYC “Fast Folk” scene.
Before Beginning: The Unreleased I Know - Nashville, 1985 was recorded spontaneously with a full band, all in one room, over in five days. After the sessions, John decided to go a different direction and the tapes were never released. The original multitrack tapes went from Nashville to Easton to New York City to Bethlehem, on to Ann Arbor and finally arrived at John’s home in Minnesota a few years ago. In the fall of 2014, he took them out of storage to see if they would still play.
"I brought them to Rob Genadek at The Brewhouse Recording Studio in Minneapolis to listen and we enjoyed what we heard. I thought that others might too, even those people who were familiar with I Know. It had different arrangements and a different energy as I was singing and playing live with the band. Genadek “baked” the tapes with a hair dryer so that magnetic particles would not flake off and they were able to transfer the analog tapes to the digital world.
In the decades since, Gorka has become a pillar of the folk music community with appearances on Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, eTown, CNN and more. Many artists have recorded and/or performed his songs, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Eliza Gilkyson, Mary Black and Maura O’Connell.
“Jim Rooney’s production adds ribbons of pure-toned electric guitar and arching alto saxophone in an amalgam of neo-traditional country and E Street Band-style rock. It’s crowded, but the production sells the songs.” — Acoustic Guitar
“These songs were the genesis for I Know, which is still considered by many to be his best album. These arrangements offer even more affirmation.” — Elmore
“Superb songwriting . . .warm, intimate, yet texturally intricate.” — Vintage Guitar
“These incisive compositions are fully formed and memorable; the acoustic arrangements are strong, and so is Gorka’s baritone.” — The Morton Report
