Five Easy Pieces
NOW Fifteen total minutes of the Gerde's Folk City Doc on YouTube. Only two-hundred and forty more minutes to go! 🎬🍺🍿🎥 SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH THE WHOLE DOC
The four (4) hour ‘director’s cut’ of the FOLK CITY documentary POSITIVELY PORCO AKA the GerdesFolkCityDoc will be on Substack. Free enrollment gets you free content. Subscribe for occasional exclusive content. The GerdesFolkCityDoc will be pay-what-you-wish and will be found there.
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/gerdes-folk-city-doc-to-be-released
POSITIVELY PORCO is a star-studded chronicle of the 1960’s Folk and Blues Revival as it was experienced at a place many musicians called HOME. Candid interviews with the music stars focus around one man, Mike Porco, and the musical family spawned in his Greenwich Village club.
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.
The common thread between everyone in the film, the director included, is their connection to Gerde's and its beloved owner, Mike Porco. MUSIC AT GERDES Gerde's Restaurant was an Italian eatery situated East of Washington Square and MacDougal Street yet it became the unlikely epicenter of a musical movement.
In his autobiography, Bob Dylan called Gerde's "the preeminent Folk club in America." Mike Porco, an opportunist who was never one to turn away a crowd, was instrumental in, literally, setting the stage for the music revolution of the 1960s.
First he hired only established troubadours and recording stars but soon offered his stage to every bright new musician who came to New York in hopes of being discovered.
In early 1960, Mike Porco added a Monday night 'Hootenanny,' widely regarded as New York's first "open mic." It afforded an opportunity for young musicians to practice their skill, try out new songs, garner recognition and gain peer acceptance. In a short time, Porco became a steadfast supporter, champion and surrogate father for those reshaping the sound of American music.
MIKE PORCO THE MAN
The film is an inspiring tale of an immigrant who, after landing in NYC during the height of the Great Depression, answered his unplanned calling to be an usher to the Revival. Mike Porco remained humble and private even as he hired and supported future recording stars. Mike's turbulent personal life still remains unknown to those he spent the most time with. Mike Porco's life outside of Gerde's was interesting, to say the least. He left much of his own family behind to commit himself to 'always being there' for his stable of young artists. Open discussion with his own sons will shed light on the hidden side of a man who was considered by many as a ''their father.''
LASTING AFFECT ON THE SCENE
During Mike Porco’s stewardship (1960-1980) the club hosted early performances by a constellation of Folk Music stars – notably, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, José Feliciano and many others. Many American radio standards and Civil rights anthems were ofttimes heard by the public for the first time at Folk City.
Folk City's distinctive fraternity of such aspiring young artists and legendary recording stars borders on myth. In her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time, former Bob Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo said that Gerde's was where "the cross-fertilization of different styles and musical eras forged important links in the chain of American musical history."
POSITIVELY PORCO will become known as the definitive document of the rich history of Gerde’s Folk City. Using first-person testimony, archival footage and authentic recordings, the movie will demonstrate the profound affect the music emanating from the Village had on the collective consciousness of a generation.
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