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Worth every penny and every moment. The DOC is the WHOLE WILD TALE up to TODAY
POSITIVELY PORCO is the definitive documentary film made about New York City's first Folk Music cabaret, GERDE'S FOLK CITY.
Filmed to enlighten even the most staunch Folk Revival enthusiast and historian, the Gerde’sFolkCityDoc, POSITIVELY PORCO, is the story of FOLK CITY OWNER Mike Porco and the club a thousand musicians called HOME.
MIKE PORCO, was instrumental in, literally, setting the stage for the music revolution of the '60's. (Pun…meaning he cut the wood and nailed together a custom stage for his restaurant)
During Mike Porco’s stewardship (1960-1980) the KING OF CLUBS hosted early performances by a constellation of Folk and traditional music stars. Many American radio standards and Civil rights anthems were ofttimes heard by the public at Gerde's Folk City for the first time.
A list Folk City's distinctive fraternity of aspiring young artists and legendary recording stars borders on myth.
In the INDIE FILM, Bob Porco (ME), Mike's grandson, undertakes an ardent personal odyssey, seeking out and sitting down with those living treasures that launched a global music paradigm shift from a street corner in Greenwich Village.
It's an inspiring tale of a DEPRESSION-ERA immigrant- and the musicians that he met later in life- who answered their COLLECTIVE CALLING to be a part of the 1960’s Folk and Blues Revival together.
The FOLK MUSIC stars themselves tell the astounding history of Gerde's and Positively Mike Porco.
The interviews that I conducted in 2013 and 2014 include
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
ROB STONER
ROD MACDONALD
HAPPY and JANE TRAUM
ERIK FRANDSEN
ERIC ANDERSEN
JOSÉ FELICIANO
DELORES DIXON
DAVID MASSENGILL
MIKE PORCO was making sauce and mixing drinks in a restaurant on 4th Street while, in the same small room, American music history was being made.
ALL FORMS OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MUSIC WERE SHOWCASED TO OTHER MUSICIANS AND AFICIONADOS.
This never happened before on such a scale. The unique convergence of individual paths could never create more of an impact as 1960.
THE INFLUENCES STRETCHED ACROSS THE WORLD AND SHAPED ALL ROCK SINCE
Some may say that Mike Porco's life was full of historic moments. It's true. He and his club were witness to legendary events during the 1960's Folk and Blues Revival AND the revival of the revival in the 1970s. His name didn't become as well known as some of his friends like Tom Paxton, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez but, soon, MUSIC LOVERS and FANS will recall his name in the same breath.
FOLK SCARE scholars already know the PORCO NAME well.
In 1960, thanks to Izzy Young, Gerde’s became New York’s FIRST Folk Music cabaret. The OPEN MIC, then called the HOOTENANNY, was invented weeks later.
Brother John Sellers, The Clancy Brothers, Rev Gary Davis Cisco Houston, Dave Van Ronk, Oscar Brand, Vince Martin and Carolyn Hester helped Mike establish Gerde’s as an authentic room for PROS to perform for a salary.
In 1961, Troubadour Cisco Houston played his LAST gig there. That same week, Cisco offered some time for a 13 year-old Arlo Guthrie to take the stage for the first time ever.
Later in 1961, Colorado’s Judy Collins played her first NYC gig. A month later, Bob Dylan played his FIRST pro gig at Folk City.
In 1962, Eric Andersen arrived. Phil Ochs and John Hammond gained top billing as pros and were signed to Vanguard Records RIGHT THERE at Gerde’s.
In 1963, José Feliciano showed up and was exposed to a wider audience leading him to become one of the world’s largest bi-lingual artists EVER.
In 1964, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel chose Folk City to be their first gig with their given names. (They had a record published as ’Tom and Jerry’ as teens)
Maggie Roche told me “the 1960s HAPPENED there at Folk City.”
In 1969, Terri Thal got Maggie and Terre Roche exposure at Folk City’s Hoot. That year, Emmylou Harris moved up from Folk City waitress to opening act.
ONWARD TO WEST 3RD STREET
In 1975, fourteen years after his rocket to fame, Bob Dylan used Folk City to launch the first ALL-NIGHT incarnation of the Rolling Thunder Tour.
THOUSANDS of artists were hired to play Folk City during Mike Porco’s twenty year reign as proprietor.
Twelve shows per week for 20 years…do the math🤌🏼
In 2015, at B.B. KING’S, I accepted Mike Porco’s induction into the New York Blues Hall of Fame.
🤌🏼 👀
🤌🏼Do ya love Rock and Roll?
🤌🏼How about Folk Rock?
🤌🏼How about The Blues?
🤌🏼Americana?
🤌🏼Singer songwriter???
🎼🎼 Ever wonder where all that came from?
Try imagining a place where it was always safe and warm for the stray musician during the Folk Revival of the 1960s.
EVERYTHING was going on there. As long as you were the best at what you did, you got hired. Jazz and comedy were welcomed again in later years.
Yet the Hootenanny on Monday’s allowed space for A COMPLETE UNKNOWN amateur to perform on the same stage as the pros.
Folk City became a good luck charm for artists and bands.
Into the 1980s, bands like Sonic Youth and 10,000 Maniacs call Folk City their first BIG booking. Lucinda Williams came. Suzanne Vega, Joan Osbourne, Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplanski, Carolyn Mas, David Massengill, Rod MacDonald, Frank Christian, Buzzy Linhart…ODETTA still came around during those post-Porco years. Folk City didn’t belong to anyone any more. It was EVERYBODY’S.
Mike Porco’s good karma has made its way into the modern day over two decades after his death. Because of his selfless effort, my task of making the definitive documentary film on Gerde's and Mike has been made a lot easier. IT IS ASTOUNDING AND AVAILABLE HERE:
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music
You’ll also get access to the Fiftieth Anniversary Concert filmed in 2010:
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/gerdes-folk-city-fiftieth-anniversary
If Americana Radio is your spirit animal, you deserve to gift yourself the four-hour film. Subscriptions are forever until you leave.
📱💻🖥
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THANK YOU! Bob
P.S.
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Since the TEES are high priced,
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