Review: John Gorka Returns with ‘unentitled’
On his first album in seven years, the folk fixture delivers a set of spare, thoughtful songs grounded in voice and guitar.
It is a testament to the quiet power and appeal of this gentle folk album that I found myself silently singing along to several songs the very first time I listened to it. Gorka has been a fixture of the new folk/acoustic music world since the 1980s—a reliably strong singer-songwriter and guitarist who has never quite broken through to the masses but has long maintained a sizable and dedicated fan base. That following has allowed him to tour the U.S. and Europe regularly and to sustain a steady recording career. This is his tenth album for the Red House label, and his first in seven years, so clearly he’s doing something right.
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What struck me immediately about unentitled is its warmth, sincerity, and simplicity. It feels like a classic, old-school folk album in the best possible ways. Gorka’s pleasing baritone voice and assured fingerpicking and strumming anchor a set of memorable songs that cover a broad range of emotions and situations but ultimately arrive at a hopeful message, delivered most plainly in the standout “Particle & Wave”: “Never stop believing there is goodness in the world.” There’s an everyman quality to Gorka’s writing—a kind of unpretentious wisdom that he shares through song, helping listeners navigate dark moments of the soul and uncertain times in the world. I’m especially taken with this determined line from “No Time to Cry”: “I don’t know what I’m doin’ but I do it well / I don’t know where I’m goin’ but I’ll get there sure as hell.”
The arrangements throughout are lean and uncluttered—usually just Gorka’s guitar, upright or electric bass, light percussion (such as brushed snare), accordion or piano, and various guests—Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky, Alice Peacock, among others—harmonizing beautifully with him on different tracks. Gorka plays a 1998 Martin OM-28V on most tracks, switching to an Antonio Hermosa electric-acoustic on the stirring anti-pollution song “Give Us Back Our Water.” The album closes with a solo guitar-and-vocal reprise of “Particle & Wave.” It’s an unshowy ending to an album that keeps its focus on the songs.
