Goldstar Member Tips

• Urban/Suburban on What to Wear
  Casual
• Urban/Suburban on Where to Park
  Free, close and plentiful
• Urban/Suburban on Where to Eat
  For some performances, you're allowed to bring drinks to your seat!

Goldstar Member Reviews

Urban/Suburban

This was a GREAT concert. Went to hear Susan Werner and became a fan of John Gorka also. We bought 3 cds! Great venue, fair price, wonderful show.

Written on Mar 29 2010

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Robert Steffen

Having been a Susan Werner fan for years, I was happy to attend a concert so close to home. She is an awesome songwriter and entertainer. Her pairing with John Gorka opened my ears to another talented singer songwriter. They clearly appreciate each other's music and professionalism.

Written on Mar 29 2010

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More Information About Susan Werner and John Gorka

Website

http://www.cod.edu/ArtsCntr/09_susanwerner.htm

Description

Over the course of her colorful career, singer songwriter Susan Werner has cultivated a reputation as a daring and innovative songwriter with a killer live show. She boldly endeavors to weave old with new to create altogether new genres of music when existing ones do not suit her muse, and she regularly keeps audiences guessing and laughing simultaneously. Most of her work infuses traditional music styles and methods with her unmistakable contemporary worldview, constantly challenging listeners to experience music from a fresh and unexpected perspective. Susan Werner's new release Classics asks no less of her distinguished audience or herself.

With Classics, Werner delivers entirely new string arrangements of mainstream popular songs by top songwriters from a "classical" pop era - the sixties and seventies. Drawing on her unique training as a classical vocalist (she has a master's degree in music history and voice performance), and the diverse talents of esteemed Boston Symphony and Pops players, Classics sets a mood that highlights elegance and sophistication previously overlooked in the first lives of songs like Paul Simon's A Hazy Shade of Winter, Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed and America's Lonely People.

Produced by Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Mary Gauthier, Lori McKenna among others, and 2007 Boston Music Awards Producer of the Year), and co-arranged by Werner with renowned Boston Pops arranger and pianist Brad Hatfield, Classics features ten songs chosen because they met three deeply considered criteria: the renewed relevancy of their messages for modern times, their correlation with her own worldview as a folk pop singer/songwriter, and their potential to blossom when performed with chamber music instruments. States Werner: "It seemed to me a chamber music approach to pop songs could reveal the poetry and impact of some of these lyrics in ways that groove driven arrangements completely overlook."

In addition to re-fashioning each song for the accompaniment of string quartet, woodwinds, brass, classical guitar or piano, Werner invites listeners to enjoy the surprising connections between pop and classical music by incorporating the occasional quotation from the world of classical music into these arrangements. Werner's thoughtful piano-strings approach to Bob Marley's Waiting In Vain, with quotations from Erik Satie's Suite: Trois Gymnopédies was the impetus for the entire project. But she didn't stop there... "The Bach cello suite excerpt sounds like a great gust of wind somehow, which set up Cat Steven's The Wind perfectly," states Susan. "The Rodrigo quote filled out the Spanish classical guitar arrangement on Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and the quotes from Vivaldi's Winter match the cold and frosty regrets in A Hazy Shade of Winter in a way that makes such sense that I really can't believe nobody did it before."

Werner relishes the challenge of being a creative free spirit and says she's in an exciting new phase of doing themed projects. In her 2004 release I Can't Be New, she delivered her modern contribution to the Great American Songbook by writing originals in the style of Gershwin and Cole Porter, but from a present-day woman's point of view. It was for her work on this album that The Chicago Tribune called her "the most innovative songwriter working today." The album went to #1 on Amazon.com, the song I Can't Be New was included in iTunes Cabaret Essentials, and Werner appeared on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz and A&E's Breakfast With The Arts.

In 2007, she blended faith and doubt in her "agnostic gospel" record The Gospel Truth - a collection of original songs drawing on gospel music traditions from Folk/Bluegrass to Americana to R&B/Soul/Spiritual, and presenting lyrics that have been praised by religious believers and non-believers alike across the country. NPR Weekend Edition's Susan Stamberg may have put it best when she called The Gospel Truth "a musical, lyrical examination of personal, social, and political faith in America... [from] a hip, wry, gifted performer." The Gospel Truth was named 2007 Top Folk Album of the Year by NPR/Folk Alley and WUMB, and Susan Werner was named Best Contemporary Folk Artist at the 2008 International Folk Alliance music conference.

It was with I Can't Be New and The Gospel Truth, that Werner firmly established her reputation as one of the boldest creative forces on the acoustic scene today. While the concepts are never simple, she has proven time and time again, her unwavering ability to deliver on the truly original promises of her inventive, visionary way of making music. "With Classics I hope to make classical music a little less scary for people," she says. "Some people treat it like fine glassware, up in the cabinet somewhere, too fragile for everyday use. But classical music is more sturdy and practical than most people imagine and it reveals so much about the composition underneath - in this case, some undeniably great songs by great songwriters. I hope Classics will be like that moment when we find ourselves, tickets in hand, walking up the steps at symphony hall or the opera house, ready and hoping to be moved by something grown up and surpassingly lovely."

Godfrey Daniels is one of the oldest and most venerable music institutions in eastern Pennsylvania. A small neighborhood coffeehouse and listening room, it has long been a hangout for music lovers and aspiring musicians, and in the late 1970s, one of these was a young Moravian College student named John Gorka. Though his academic course work lay in Philosophy and History, music began to offer paramount enticements. Soon he found himself living in the club’s basement and acting as resident M.C. and soundman, encountering legendary folk troubadors like Canadian singer/songwriter Stan Rogers, Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton and Claudia Schmidt. Their brand of folk-inspired acoustic music inspired him, and before long he was performing his own songs — mostly as an opener for visiting acts. Soon he started traveling to New York City, where Jack Hardy’s legendary Fast Folk circle (a breeding ground for many a major singer/songwriter) became a powerful source of education and encouragement. Folk meccas like Texas’ Kerrville Folk Festival (where he won the New Folk Award in 1984) and Boston followed, and his stunningly soulful baritone voice and emerging songwriting began turning heads. Those who had at one time inspired him — Suzanne Vega, Bill Morrissey, Nanci Griffith, Christine Lavin, Shawn Colvin — had become his peers.

In 1987, the young Minnesota-based Red House Records caught wind of John’s talents and released his first album , I Know , to popular and critical acclaim. With unusual drive and focus, John hit the ground running and, when an offer came from Windhan Hill’s Will Ackerman in 1989, he signed with that label’s inprint, High Street Records. He proceeded to record five albums with High Street over the next seven years: Land of the Bottom Line, Jack’s Crows, Temporary Road, Out of the Valley, and Between Five and Seven. His albums and his touring (over 150 nights a year at times) brought new accolades for his craft. Rolling Stone called him “the preeminent male singer/songwriter of the new folk movement.” His rich multi-faceted songs full of depth, beauty and emotion gained increasing attention from critics and audiences across the country, as well as in Europe where his tours led him through Italy, Belgium, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland and Germany.

Other performers also discovered his songwriting. His material is championed by many — to date more than a score of artists have recorded and/or performed John Gorka songs, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mary Black and Maura O’Connell. He also started sharing tours with many notable friends — Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter among them. All this has brought his music to an ever-widening audience. His video for the single “When She Kisses Me” found a long-term rotation on VH-1’s “Current Country,” as well as on CMT and the Nashville Network. John also graced the stage of Austin City Limits, appeared on CNN, and has been the subject of other national pro- gramming.

Finally in 1998, after five successful recordings, and seven years at Windham Hill/High Street, John felt the need for a change and decided to return to his musical roots at Red House Records. The choice was driven, in part, by the artistic integrity that the label represents in an industry where the business of music too often takes precedence. As John says, “Red House is in it first for the music, and so am I. It’s a good place to be.”

After Yesterday represents the first fruits of that reunion and reflects John’s continuing commitment to the craft of songwriting. Longtime fans will find in its twelve songs John’s trademark twist of lyric and attention to the details that so effectively evoke a time, a place, a person, or a range of emotion. But there are also the stirrings of new musical directions with the evocative addition of percussion from Ani DiFranco’s drummer Andy Stochansky. John also shares his joy at recent changes in his life (namely a 1996 marriage and move to Minnesota, followed by the 1997 birth of a baby boy — Bocephus Mahatma Sinatra Gorka) with cuts such as “Cypress Trees,” “After Yesterday” and “When He Cries.” There is a hardened knowledge, vented and voiced in “Thorny Patch” and “Wisdom.” Story songs and character studies, “Amber Lee,” “Silvertown” and “Zuly” engage the imagination, while a song like “Heroes” invites introspection.

Though a long way from Godfrey Daniels, John Gorka is still honored to be a part of the folk tradition — energetic acoustic music that is not a trend, not a fad, but an expression of everyday life. After Yesterday is the embodiment of that expression — another classic release where his rich baritone voice and unique songcraft weave together in a way that can only be described as “Gorka.”

About the Ticket Supplier: McAninch Arts Center

The mission of the McAninch Arts Center is to foster enlightened educational and performance opportunities, which encourage artistic expression, establish a lasting relationship between people and art, and enrich the cultural vitality of the community.