Company You Keep (CD - 2001)

Personnel: John Gorka (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, tambourine); John Jennings (acoustic guitar, bass); Dean Magraw (acoustic guitar); Ani DiFranco (electric tenor guitar); Patty Larkin, Dirk Freymuth (electric guitar); Peter Ostroushko (fiddle); Rick Dworsky (piano, organ); Gordy Johnson (upright bass); Michael Manring (fretless electric bass); Andy Stochansky (drums, percussion (percussion); Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucy Kaplansky (background vocals).

Producers: Rob Genadek, John Gorka, Andy Stochansky.

Engineers: Rob Genadek, Tommy Tucker, John Gorka.

Recorded at The Brewhouse, Minneapolis & Blow-Me-Wind/Hamhill Studios, Bitter Creek, Minnesota.

Personnel: John Gorka (vocals, guitar, tambourine); Dean Magraw, Dirk Freymuth, Ani DiFranco (guitar); Patty Larkin (electric guitar); Peter Ostroushko (fiddle); Richard Dworsky (piano, organ); Andy Stochansky (drums, percussion).

Audio Mixers: Rob Genadek; Tommy Tucker .

Photographer: Ann Marsden.

For the most part, Gorka offers low-energy singer/songwriter folk with shades of adult contemporary rock on The Company You Keep. Weary nostalgia dominates his introspective, observational lyrics. Whether it's first person or second person, the material muses over lost chances and making the best of things without offering any easy solutions, with a complacent though not self-satisfied attitude. Matters are livened, slightly, by the Bob Dylan-like organ of "Oh Abraham," and a variety of female harmony vocalists, including Mary Chapin Carpenter and Ani DiFranco. When he kicks out the jams, relatively speaking, for the odd up-tempo tune like the bar-band-rollicking "Joint of No Return," or "Around the House" (which sounds somewhat like Tom Rush does when he decides to rock out), the sudden jolt of octane is downright shocking. "People My Age" and the country-flavored "Hank Senior Moment" flash glimpses of a nasty edge largely absent from the other compositions. ~ Richie Unterberger minimize