From: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org (good-noise-digest) To: good-noise-digest@smoe.org Subject: good-noise-digest V2 #29 Reply-To: good-noise@smoe.org Sender: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk good-noise-digest Saturday, March 6 1999 Volume 02 : Number 029 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: So What's In YOUR Player? ["Mary Sansone" ] Re: So What's In YOUR Player? [Kris Pancoast ] Re: one encompassing question [Mary Larson ] new twist ["Sean Palen" ] Re: new twist ["Kevin Rent" ] Re: new twist ["John W. Richard, Jr." ] Re: new twist [Mary Larson ] Re: new twist [Kris Pancoast ] Re: new twist ["Kevin Rent" ] BOUNCED message Re: new twist [Chris Thorpe ] Re: So What's In YOUR Player? [MadlyDancn@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 10:24:26 -0800 From: "Mary Sansone" Subject: Re: So What's In YOUR Player? I first heard JG a few years ago when visiting a friend in New Mexici....I soon owned all his CDs....my marriage of many years was on the rocks and ended 1 year ago after 24 1/2 years. I found understanding, comfort, joy, sorrow, and humor in his music and still do. I discovered David Wilcox at the same time. My folk/acoustic collection has grown to include Lucy Kaplansky and several others.....last night at a local music store I was trying to buy Shindell's Reunion Hill....of course here in St Joe they did not have it....I do have it on order in KC. For the 1st time locally, I talked to someone working at the store that actually knew who JG and many others were. At his advice I bought 2 CDs by James McMurtrey-"It Had to Happen" and "Where Did You Hide the Bodies"...I played them both last night and fell in love with him too...I also puchased Lyle Lovitt "Step Inside This House" because I saw it on so many "what's in YOUR plyaer" lists...it is playing now and I am not dissapointed. I do not know why I have never owned Lyle's music before. Mary ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 09:39:57 -0500 From: Kris Pancoast Subject: Re: So What's In YOUR Player? Mary Sansone wrote: I also puchased Lyle Lovitt "Step Inside This House" because I saw it on so many "what's in YOUR player" lists. Mary - I also noticed that and had heard a lot of his music on WXPN (yes, it is nice to have such a great local radio station Jay!!). That will be my next purchase!!! Barbara - Quite a story behind that there CD player!! Peace, Kris ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 07:45:29 -0800 (PST) From: Mary Larson Subject: Re: one encompassing question Dan - I for one would love the info on the book. The more Gorka stuff the merrier, I always say! Cheers - Mary ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 08:57:30 PST From: "Sean Palen" Subject: new twist Hello all, I have a new twist to throw out, if you had to pick a favorite John Gorka album, what would it be? I would have to say for me, depending on mood and the weather, Land of the Bottom Line or Jacks Crows. I would make arguments for the rest, but for some reason those two are just over and above. take it easy, sean ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 11:02:32 PST From: "Kevin Rent" Subject: Re: new twist hmmm... It's funny you should ask this, because I was thinking the same thing earlier today. My rankings of John's albums are: 1). Land of the Bottom Line 2). Jack's Crow's 3). Temporary Road 4). After Yesterday 5). Between Five and Seven 6). Out of the Valley *I don't have and haven't heard I Know, so I can't rank it...* Though it really is a tough call between L.O.T.B.L. and Jack's Crows. I like L.O.T.B.L. now because it is more about human relationships whereas Jack's Crows is moreabout ppl relating to their environment... since I just ended a 2 year relationship I'm in a more sombre mood. When I have my social activist hat on, I like Jack's Crows. Well, take care... Kevin :) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 13:17:06 -0600 From: "John W. Richard, Jr." Subject: Re: new twist Yeah, I definitely have to put in my vote for "Land of the Bottom Line" as my favorite Gorka album. I was driving from Austin to Dallas one evening and listened to that album fours times in a row. But, I'd list "Out of the Valley" as my #2 choice. It's not quite as somber and thoughtful as maybe some of his others, but I really love it. While we're voting on favorite albums, what about favorite JG song, too? My favorite is "That's Why", which may not be the choice of most people. I just love the way the lyrics flow. That's my 2 cents. :-) Cheers, JWR "It's America's own strange disease, how we merchandise our tragedies..." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 11:36:05 -0800 (PST) From: Mary Larson Subject: Re: new twist I suppose Land of the Bottom Line and I Know are my favorites, only because I've listened to them the most. Here's the story of why. I was moving from Ketchikan to Fairbanks, Alaska. Although much of that is a ferry ride, there's also a good deal of driving (in deep snow, about 14 - -16 hours). I was bummed out because I'd just lost my job (federal budget cuts), had just broken up with my boyfriend, and was moving to someplace where I knew absolutely no one. The only tape I had in my car was a compilation of LOTBL and I Know (which explains why, to this day, I can't remember which songs are from which release). I listened to that for two days on the ferry and then for the following 14-hour drive. Made quite an impression! To this day I still can't drive through Whitehorse (Yukon Territory) without hearing "Prom Night in Pigtown" in the back of my mind... I have loved those two tapes ever since... Mary in Reno ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 14:52:39 -0500 From: Kris Pancoast Subject: Re: new twist Wowwee - For an indecisive person such as myself, this has got to be one of the toughest things. Good topic to throw out there for discussion BTW! As I've seen others mention, it does depend on the mood you're in. I guess it was exactly for the above reason (indecisiveness) that I made myself a 90 minute compilation tape so I can have all of my fav. songs in one place. Anyhoo, here's my attempt: 1. Out of the Valley (maybe because this is the first one I ever bought, maybe because it's the one I have autographed, maybe because I just love this one the best.) 2. I Know 3. Jack's Crows 4. Between 5 & 7 5. Temporary Road 6. Land of the Bottom Line 7. After Yesterday I don't know - ask me in 10 minutes and it'll probably change. As for the fav. song - that is almost as hard. But, I'll go with "Love is our cross to bear" for somber moods and "Branching Out" or "Always Going Home" when I'm feeling more upbeat. Gonna go listen to Cry, Cry, Cry on the radio now - they're on the World Cafe this afternoon. Peace, Kris ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 12:01:55 PST From: "Kevin Rent" Subject: Re: new twist hmmm... It's funny you should ask this, because I was thinking the same thing earlier today. My rankings of John's albums are: 1). Land of the Bottom Line 2). Jack's Crow's 3). Temporary Road 4). After Yesterday 5). Between Five and Seven 6). Out of the Valley *I don't have and haven't heard I Know, so I can't rank it...* Though it really is a tough call between L.O.T.B.L. and Jack's Crows. I like L.O.T.B.L. now because it is more about human relationships whereas Jack's Crows is moreabout ppl relating to their environment... since I just ended a 2 year relationship I'm in a more sombre mood. When I have my social activist hat on, I like Jack's Crows. Well, take care... Kevin :) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 17:10:29 -0500 From: Chris Thorpe Subject: BOUNCED message Re: new twist Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 22:00:36 -0500 From: "E. Eric Rytter" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: good-noise@smoe.org Subject: Re: new twist Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hey all, I just had to respond to this: Mary, that's a really great story. I've always found John's music sounds best in the car (though it sounds great anywhere). Thanks for sharing. I've been resisting jumping into either of these strands, but I'm breaking down... I first started listening to John when I was going to college in the Lehigh Valley. I had a radio show in college, and borrowed LOTBL from the station one day. I hadn't yet totally broken into folk music yet, but was heading that way. By the time Jack's came out, I was far gone. I suppose living in the Lehigh Valley for those years, as John was, made me feel a real connection to the music, but more than just generating a wonderful sense of place, much of his music seemed to correspond to a lot of my life...communicating the everyday through the universal, which is the everyday: John's forte. The week I graduated, and the very day I was packing my stuff to move, Out of the Valley came out -- nothing I could have formulated in speech would have been able to express the feelings of the time, but John managed to, as always, with beauty and grace (I've always assumed since that this was about the time he was moving as well). I'm living abroad now, and John's music seems to keep me rooted in where I feel I come from (which, incidentally, by birth, is New Jersey). My favorite albumn by John? Whichever one happens to be on at the time, though Jack's Crows really holds a lot for me. My favorite song? There's lots, but I never fail to be mesmerized by "Night is a Woman" (as well as "Scraping Dixie"). Favorite lyric? Depends on my mood, but here's a few: - -funny: "He was the kind to look for work, though not the kind to find it" - -sad: "They say Jamie's heart don't break, but I know it did." - -wittily contemplative: "we're all flashes in a great big pan, and they're turning up the heat." - -simply poetic: "Well I guess no one should be afraid of change, but tell me why is there a fence for every open range." Thanks for bringing back a lot of good driving memories, Mary. -Eric Mary Larson wrote: >> I suppose Land of the Bottom Line and I Know are my favorites, only >> because I've listened to them the most. Here's the story of why. I was >> moving from Ketchikan to Fairbanks, Alaska. Although much of that is a >> ferry ride, there's also a good deal of driving (in deep snow, about 14 >> -16 hours). I was bummed out because I'd just lost my job (federal budget >> cuts), had just broken up with my boyfriend, and was moving to someplace >> where I knew absolutely no one. The only tape I had in my car was a >> compilation of LOTBL and I Know (which explains why, to this day, I can't >> remember which songs are from which release). I listened to that for two >> days on the ferry and then for the following 14-hour drive. Made quite an >> impression! To this day I still can't drive through Whitehorse (Yukon >> Territory) without hearing "Prom Night in Pigtown" in the back of my >> mind... I have loved those two tapes ever since... >> Mary in Reno ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 00:34:08 EST From: MadlyDancn@aol.com Subject: Re: So What's In YOUR Player? Gosh. . . . I guess I'd better jump in before I'm a thread behind! I've been struggling with the idea of a *favorite* Gorka line, since his way with words is one of the things I enjoy most about JG's music. I'm also cd-rom drive-impaired at the moment, so there's nothing actually playing nearby, and whenever I leave the computer dungeon to go check either of my functioning cd players, I get sidetracked and don't make it back here for awhile. The bio part is the easiest, I suppose, though by far the least interesting. I'm a thirty-five year old sixth grade (for now) English teacher here in the Balto/DC/Annapolis area. I'm also the mother of two fabulous kids. Even they have a slight Gorka connection, as my daughter is musically gifted and my son is a dreamer and a wordsmith. My introduction to JG's music is a bittersweet memory, so I'll just say, as with many things, I'm glad it came into my life, no matter how it got there! I've enjoyed seeing him several times in concert (between five and seven, actually), and got a smile out of twice requesting "When She Kisses Me" at the right time in John's set list...just when it seems he was planning to play it anyway. (Well, the first time was a lucky guess. The second time I think I knew it was coming.) What a guy! It's been interesting to see the similarities between what I have in my players or have had in the past week or so and what is in the group's "what's playing" lists. If memory serves correctly, here's what's ready to spin in the living room and bedroom: David Wilcox: How Did You Find Me Here, East Asheville Hardware, and Turning Point. . . I'm going to my first Wilcox concert in a few weeks and I absolutely CAN'T WAIT! John Gorka: Land of the Bottom Line and Jack's Crows Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey Lyle Lovett: Road to Ensenada Cliff Eberhardt: Mona Lisa Cafe Lucy Kaplansky: The Tide Dar Williams: End of the Summer John Williams: Bach Lute Suites and Edvard Grieg's Greatest Hits (okay, I'm making up that title. It's something like that, though.) And no one asked, but I have a really great Chery Wheeler video in the vcr! As I said at the beginning, I really am stumped as to a favorite line. Gorka's way with words is just awesome. (Obviously, with weak adjectives like "awesome," my way with words is somewhat lacking.) Many of you have already used some of my very favorites, though I don't think anyone's mentioned how amusing the whole song "Promnight in Pigtown" is. I still chuckle when I listen to it and wonder if he had as much fun writing it. "After desserts they bobbed for apples All knowing they could soon be scrapple....they bore no attitude..." The silk purse. The string of pearls. Where does he GET this stuff?!?!!! The title itself, "Armed with a Broken Heart" first captured my attention, so I suppose that's a major contender for favorite. Oh. . . it's just so hard to choose. I guess it doesn't quite qualify, but I also love the liner notes' intro to "Jack's Crows." I thought I was the only one who noticed how much the fabled Jack gets around. :-) I think I'm getting carried away. That's enough for now. Thanks for listening! Karen "Give me time to wonder and to dream" ------------------------------ End of good-noise-digest V2 #29 *******************************