John Gorka has released 17 solo albums over a career that has stretched across four decades and counting, but there's always something new to learn. One of the ways Gorka's musical knowledge has expanded is as a songwriting instructor; specifically, teaching others taught Gorka a bit about his own approach to the craft. "One of the things I try to do in the songwriting thing," he says, "is try to get as much as I can down in one sitting when the inspiration and whatever intuition is there, and then go back to it, like a month later, and if the melody comes back and the feel comes back, I realize, OK — I should pay more attention to this, because it may have a life of its own."

It was that approach that helped Gorka write "Favorite Place," one of the tracks on his latest album, unentitled, released October 5, 2025, on Red House Records. Gorka visited The Current studio to record a session with Radio Heartland's Mike Pengra, where Gorka played songs from the new album. Watch the session above.

Interview Highlight

Gorka on his experience as a songwriting instructor

I'd been doing some songwriting workshops with Eliza Gilkyson, and we started as a live thing, and have done it online since then, called Casa de Musica workshops. But also I've been an instructor at Swannanoa — the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina — their contemporary song camp, and so I'm one of the people there. And … a songwriting workshop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. …

One of the things I say to people: Think about writing something for a particular event or a particular set of people, a room full of people. You don't have to write a song for all people and all time, and that sometimes having certain limits can also take the pressure off of writing a song. …

That's one of the things I try to do in the songwriting thing, is try to get as much as I can down in one sitting when the inspiration and the intuition is there, and then go back to it, like a month later, and if the melody comes back and the feel comes back, I realize, OK — I should pay more attention to this, because it may have a life of its own.

I think there's a thing that Mary Oliver says about writing poetry. She said, “I don't know if you can teach how to write poetry, but there are things that must be learned.” And so what I do is I try to talk about what's worked for me, and then I try to address each person's — if there's a certain area that they have trouble with, I can sometimes address that.

So I really feel like I can add something, and I can always hear if somebody plays me a partially completed song, I feel like I can see what's good there, and I see what's a part that could be made better. So that's kind of new for me to be able to feel like I could do songwriting [instruction]. I was more like a coach, I think.

Video Segments

00:00:04 Favorite Place
00:02:06 Interview with host Mike Pengra, part 1
00:08:39 Hold On
00:11:37 Interview with host Mike Pengra, part 2
00:13:56 Particle & Wave (Goodness in the World)

All songs are from John Gorka’s 2025 album, unentitled, available on Red House Records.

Musician

John Gorka – vocals and guitar

Credits

Guest – John Gorka
Host/Producer – Mike Pengra
Audio – Evan Clark
Graphics – Natalia Toledo, Ruben Schneiderman
Video/Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

John Gorka – official site