Documentary on MIKE PORCO's Folk Music Cabaret GERDE’S FOLK CITY
Eleven years in the making released not a moment too soon
🎉The Day Has Come! 🍾
POSITIVELY PORCO- The GerdesFolkCityDoc- rests behind this subscription FOR YOUR EYES ONLY👀
📣📣 Come Join my Substack for the EXCLUSIVE RELEASE 📣📣
After eleven (11) years and one(1) month of shooting and editing, the GerdesFolkCityDoc is NOW released one(1) day early!!!
🍿🍿🍿🍿Get cracking, music lovers around the globe!🌎🌎🌎🌎
You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll wonder how long it will take you to watch 4 hours of MUSIC HISTORY in your spare time. You’ll be happy you did because you’ll be mo’ educated on the COMPLETE STORY surrounding NEW YORK’s FIRST FOLK MUSIC CABARET-
🗽NEW YORK’s CENTER OF FOLK MUSIC🗽
GERDE’S FOLK CITY 🏆
THE KING OF CLUBS ♣️♣️♣️♣️
Folk City was like American Music’s Noah’s Ark
📜 As Suze Rotolo put it in her memoir: Gerde’s was where "the cross-fertilization of different styles and musical eras forged important links in the chain of American musical history."
Arlo Guthrie said: “There’s something pretty cool about being a link in a very long chain”🔗
🔥POSITIVELY PORCO is a unique collection of unguarded and inspiring moments shared by the performers and personalities who- along with club owner MIKE PORCO- played a crucial role in the rise and propagation of what became known as the Greenwich Village Folk and Blues Revival. The film will enlighten even the most staunch Folk Revival enthusiast and historian.
I conducted interviews with 23 musicians and luminaries from the TIME:
BRUCE LANGHORNE
JOHN P. HAMMOND
ARLO GUTHRIE
TERRE ROCHE
BARRY KORNFELD
DOMINIC CHIANESE
VINCE MARTIN
IZZY YOUNG
BOB PORCO SR.
ANGELO PORCO
GEORGE GERDES
SONNY OCHS
PEGGY DUNCAN-GARNER
LARRY ‘RATSO’ SLOMAN
HAPPY and JANE TRAUM
ROB STONER
ROD MACDONALD
ERIK FRANDSEN
ERIC ANDERSEN
JOSÉ FELICIANO
DELORES DIXON
DAVID MASSENGILL
🎥🎼🎥🎼🎥🎼🎥🎼🎥🎼🎥🎼
💁🏼EVER WONDER: How did the Americana Music genre form?
My grandfather Mike Porco offered up his Italian restaurant on 4th and Mercer to be the headquarters for the 1960s Folk and Blues Revival. It was HOME to traditional artists and it became HOME BASE for aspiring Singer-Songwriters from all over the country to come and be heard.
Back then, talented musicians REALLY COULD take a bus to Washington Square to show off their wares and actually find WORK at one of the THIRTY clubs that welcomed acoustic performers.
Early on, there was only ONE venue that was a LEGIT room that paid a professional wage. (Take a wild guess which one)
Traveling Troubadours and Blues originators included Gerde’s Folk City on their Eastern circuit.
THEY CREATED A NEW SOUND that transformed American Classic Radio!
🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼
They developed whole new genres that blended many styles of
FOLK, ROCK, ROOTS and BLUES🎻🎸🪕🎙
Country Blues and American Folk mated to create what we now call FOLK ROCK.
🤌🏼But wait!! THERE’S MORE!!!
European balladeers and story tellers were ALSO exposing their time-honored styles and traditional songs to American musicians and audiences at Gerde’s.
🤌🏼But wait!! THERE’S MORE!!!
Sunday Gospel singing groups were also BARING their SOULS for days on end in Mike Porco’s small restaurant at 11 West 4th St.
He was serving up EVERYTHING under the sun.
🤌🏼But wait!! There’s more!!!
Not only were PROFESSIONAL traveling musicians finding work but AMATEUR UPSTARTS had a chance to give it the ol’ college try on Monday nights at NEW YORK’s FIRST OPEN MIC.
That’s what they are called NOW but back then, open mics DIDN’T exist. Not until Charlie Rothschild, Oscar Brand and Dave Van Ronk suggested that Mike Porco call his Monday ’talent night’ the HOOTENANNY.
Not only was Gerde’s the place for talented musicians to learn BY WATCHING the pros do their thing on a weekly basis, they could sign up early on a MONDAY and take the stage themselves at the HOOT.
NUMEROUS household-name artists were LITERALLY signed to RECORDING CONTRACTS in the basement at Folk City after cutting their teeth🦷
MUSIC EXECUTIVES knew THEN that the old way to make radio hits was going by the wayside. Original singer-songwriters who could play and present the MUSIC THEMSELVES turned the industry on its ear.
THE TIMES of the 1960s were being told by FRESH FACES with VIRTUOSITY. The best musicians were no longer only employed at the Brill Building.
They were coming out of the woodwork!
In Washington Square, the NEXT BIG THING would most times be found at Gerde’s Folk City.🎙
Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, Simon and Garfunkel, José Feliciano, Arlo Guthrie, John Hammond and John Sebastian were just a few of the recording STARS who didn’t start out that way. They had to work their way up from opening act to stardom.
Only the BEST of THE BEST traveling musicians played Gerde’s with advance publicity like Doc Watson, Dave Van Ronk, Jean Ritchie, Barbara Dane, Lonnie Johnson, Jean Redpath, Victoria Spivey and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
🏆Peter, Paul and Mary were showcased at Gerde’s for the first time. They were a real supergroup that helped bring Folk Music to the masses.
Millions of records were sold by dozens of A-LIST performers who can all say that they got their start at an Italian restaurant that held 175 people!
🎤AND THIS ALL HAPPENED IN THE 1960s in NEW YORK!
I haven’t even mentioned what kind of talent came through Folk City at Mike and John Porco’s 3rd Street location between 1970 and 1980.
🎼🎼🎼The Roches, Steve Forbert, Phoebe Snow, George Gerdes, Jack Hardy, David Massengill, Carolyn Mas, Buzzy Linhart, Rod MacDonald…
It was a little more than a coincidence! They came from everywhere to MAKE IT AT FOLK CITY. It was their first REAL GIG before getting on the road.
If you think this description of the film is long,
🎬Wait til you see the Gerdes Folk City Doc.🎥
It will astound you. It explains how it all came about and it goes in to depth about the MAN who made it all possible for TWENTY years.
MIKE PORCO was the DEAN of FOLK CITY.🎼🎹🥁🪗🎸🪕🎻
Before musicians had social media to get the word out about their skill, they had to use connections with club owners. Mike Porco went above and beyond the call of duty.
His contributions to the advancement of the music scene during those twenty years cannot be overstated. He will have his incredible story told ONCE AND FOR ALL in the Gerde’s Folk City Doc, POSITIVELY PORCO.
It’s ready for consumption. After 11 years…
COME AND GET IT!!!
📱💻🖥
✅Make a Substack account
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Reminder: It is what it is. Some parts have ‘director’s notes’ still visible while other parts are naked. Oh well🤞🏼 It’s very indie.
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