John Gorka - The Company You Keep (2001)

Tracklist

01. What Was That
02. A Saint's Complaint
03. Oh Abraham
04. When You Walk In
05. Shape Of The World
06. Morningside
07. When I Lost My Faith
08. Joint Of No Return
09. Let Them In
10. Over There
11. Hank Senior Moment
12. Around The House
13. Wisheries
14. People My Age

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.

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