JonGorey.com

Hello, friends!  First off, I've got a couple of free shows coming up:  Saturday, March 15th , 3–6pm at the Monument in Charlestown (St. Patrick's Day special) Sunday, April 6th , 2:30–5:30pm at Break Rock Brewing in Quincy On a less breezy note: Sadness and anger are big emotions. Emotions are a form of energy. And when energy builds up, it needs somewhere to go, so the container holding it doesn't explode.   Thus, I have a new song for you — a protest song, fueled by fury. It's called 'Prince of Corruption.' You can listen to it for free on Bandcamp , stream it on Apple Music or Spotify , or watch the lyric video on YouTube  (or below):  You surely know by now how I feel about our current president. He has committed too many sins against our country to list in one space, most recently siding with Russia and North Korea (!) while antagonizing our friends and allies in Canada and Europe, and empowering an unelected Nazi-apologist billionaire to slas...

Was it really 10 years ago when the levies broke, when Hurricane Katrina flooded and drowned so much of New Orleans? I can still remember the horrifying images and footage, the desperation and suffering, and the history of injustice and unrest laid bare for all the world to see.  This song came to me almost all at once during a meeting at work, weirdly enough. (I'm terrible at paying attention to work meetings. God, they're the worst, aren't they?) I scrambled to write it all down when I got back to my computer.  Weirder still, I got an out-of-the-blue email from a friend of mine literally minutes afterward -- the only person I knew or know who actually grew up in New Orleans. She helped me finish it with some desperately needed authenticity and sensitivity.  It's an optimistic song at heart, and we've since revisited the Big Easy for an incredible time at Jazz Fest in 2009 . But New Orleans is still  very much in the process of an uneven redemption...

It's been 10 years and three -- that's THREE -- ( 3?!! ) -- Red Sox World Series championships since I wrote "The Scarlet Letter." To the 26-year-old me who watched the otherwise insignificant Aaron Boone knock my dreams out of Yankee Stadium in late 2003, this present version of reality is flat-out unthinkable . In a few ways, really. Let me explain. Of course, there's the Red Sox. You all know the story, perhaps not as intimately if you're not from around Boston, but you get the gist. Eighty-six years is a long, long time. (Cubs fans have endured even longer, but I'd argue it's worse when you come so close so often.) As a bright-eyed 10-year-old, I watched that ground ball go through Bill Buckner's legs in disbelief, and watched my dad pretty much have a breakdown. But there's more to it than that. In the fall of 2003, I was unemployed, trying to find love, trying to be a musician … and worried I was failing at all of it . But I lived...

Photo by TheWickedSoul Happy blizzard, everyone! I hope you were able to keep safe, warm, and cozy, and catch up on the books / movies / music / cooking / skiing / whatever it is you've been wanting to do more of this winter. As for me, I was able to catch up on all that shoveling and living off the grid I'd been meaning to do. We were without power for over 24 hours, a rarity in our dense urban village. But the wood stove kept us warm, and the good folks at National Grid has up and running by late Saturday night. Anyway, in celebration of Valentine's Day, I have a special Top 5 Day post for you: my favorite romantic songs that I've written. And as a token of my love for y'all, they are all FREE to download in the month of February . Without further ado...   5. Riches of the Poor | Download free As John Lennon said, "All you need is love." It's as simple as that. I've been blessed enough to know it in many forms, and it really is all...

I am a bleeding-heart liberal; I think it's funny that the term is somehow intended to be derogatory. Yes, my heart bleeds. It bleeds for the kids killed in Newtown. It bleeds for their poor parents and their families. It bleeds for the kids who survived but will forever be haunted by the horrors they witnessed. Not just as a parent, but as a person, with a heart, this is all I have been able to think about for the past few weeks. Even amid Christmas, work, weddings, and other distractions, my heart has not been able to wrestle itself free from the weight of this tragedy -- the latest in a long, terrible saga. So I wrote a song. And I made a video for it, with some facts about gun violence in America courtesy of Stop Handgun Violence and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence . It's an angry song , because I am angry. I'm devastated and desperate to do something. It is directed at the NRA , because they are the biggest, clearest villain in a story that is...

 Our first dance. Photo by Kate Rose . When Gina first moved in with us on Commonwealth Ave. in 2003, I was working on a bunch of new songs (most of which appeared on Indeed! ). But one in particular was very important to me: I was trying to write a song that I would play for my future wife, whoever she may be, on our wedding day, whenever that may be. It was a daunting endeavor, and I struggled with it for a couple of years. But it got much easier once I realized whom I was writing about. And so, on Sept. 1, 2007, I serenaded my new bride (Gina, if you haven't figured that out by now) with "On and On," a song I'd written especially for the occasion. (I somehow managed to get through it without crying like a sap in front of all of our friends and family.) While it would have been a perfect first dance song for us, we couldn't exactly pull that off, of course -- what with the microphone and guitar in the way! But now that it's recorded, maybe someon...

There is a picture out there, somewhere, of my friend Paul. It is marvelous; it is sublime in its absurdity. His hair is dyed orange, because we were in London, it was 1997, and that was the thing to do. It was meant to be Prodigy red or Sick Boy blonde or something, but it didn't come out right (see photo to your left -- which is not the photo). He is looking upward, squinting, and smiling in a coy-but-drunken way, with engorged lips... like an intoxicated chimpanzee who's just found half a banana in your garbage. He is shirtless. Scratch that, I think he's actually wearing a black bra . How did I forget THAT little tidbit? And someone is reaching into the frame, pinching at his bare chest. I can't even remember the sequence of events that led to this Pulitzer Prize-caliber photograph, and if we graduated in the age of Flickr I'd be able to show it to you. Alas, it's hidden away somewhere safe and secretive. Or perhaps under an old couch cushion ...

With some distance now separating myself from many of the songs I've written — let's call that distance "perspective" rather than "age," shall we? — certain songs outlast others, enduring beyond their original context to resonate just as strongly in new chapters of my life. The one that really might be my favorite of all, that still just breaks my heart for some reason, is "Song I Wrote for You." I don't know what it is about this very simple song, but it's never stopped evoking the same profound emotions it did when I first wrote it. It's partly about a girl, of course (isn't it always?). But that's a very small part of it, and certainly not the reason it continues to have such a powerful impact on me. I was supposed to go down to New York that day. There had been some kind of minor bomb scare in the city, and I grew paralyzed with fear about the trip; I couldn't go. I couldn't even leave the apartment. I'm r...

The first people to ever hear this song were my wife-to-be and her friend Kerri, who were stopping by to check out our apartment on Comm Ave. I had just finished writing it and wanted to play it for someone. (Yeah, and so maybe I wanted to impress Gina, too, which makes me embarrassed. I was pretty smooth , let me tell ya.) Anyway, I've always loved this song, even though it's kind of dark and melancholy. It was a dark and melancholy time — I'd just gotten back from a life-altering trip to Ireland, been laid off, and had no idea what to do with my life. I was writing a ton of music but had no money to record any of it. I desperately wanted to travel more, and had actually signed up for WWOOF in the UK & Ireland. Thankfully, Gina moved in shortly after, and I began driving her to work each morning, which made me feel worthwhile! (Yeah, that's pretty much all it takes. I just like to have a purpose.) Gray Blue Morning © 2004 by Jon Gorey Oddball chords...

Today's song — one of only a dozen or so of mine that I'm still happy with, to be honest — takes us back to my scathing indictment of Andrew Jackson . I wrote this song around the time I learned about the Trail of Tears, though I didn't record it until years later. This is a fine time to plug an excellent new American Experience series, called  We Shall Remain , airing this month on WGBH — you can watch the Trail of Tears episode online and get learned! Anyway, on to the chords and lyrics... Ten Thousand Candles © 2005 by Jon Gorey Chords: Am: x02210 Em/B: x22000 C: 032010 F: 133211 G: 320003 Fmaj7: x33210 E7: 022130 G/B: x20003 Intro: Am | Em/B | C | F | Am | Em/B | C | G (Am) Ten thousand (Em/B) candles burn (C) just for a (F) lesson learned (Am) Ten thousand (Em/B) hopes inside of (C) me (G) (Am) I try to (Em/B) see the true (C) like all good (F) people do (Am) They say the (Em/B) truth will set you (C) free (G) (FMaj7) Tonight I (Am) hold t...

Perhaps you've caught on to the fact that I'm trying to move anything of value from my archaic old site onto this shiny (and free, woohoo!) new blog. To that end, I'm going to start posting the lyrics and chords to some of my songs. For this inaugural edition, we'll do one of my old favorites. Streetcorner Song © 1996 by Jon Gorey Chords: G: 320033 D/F#: 200233 C: x320013 Am: x02210 Bm: 224432 Em: 022000 D: x00232 Intro: G D/F# C G (X2) Verse 1: There's a [G] smiling man singing [D/F#] loud as he can On the [C] corner of the [G] street His [G] hands are cold and he's [D/F#] growing old But [C] he still taps his [G] feet. He's [G] playing a song he's [D/F#] known so long That it [C] brings him back in [G] time. He knows [G] some of the words but he's [D/F#] not too sure So [C] he just makes it [G] rhyme. [Am] His eyes have [Em] seen the [Bm] hardest [Em] times [Am] His mother [Em] ran away and [Bm] left him [D] behind [...