Who is Gordon Bok??

Subject: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: GUEST,Jason Gaudet
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 03:09 PM

Who is Gordon Bok?? I have been interest in folk/celtic music for some time and from time to time come across the name "Gordon Bok". He has written some wonderful song, some which are of areas close to me. I have tried to track a recording down, especially "Bay of Fundy". Is this artist still alive? Is he Canadian or American? Anyone having information, please contact me. Thanks

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 03:13 PM

Sandy...you wanna take this?

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 03:29 PM

Sandy's probably a bit behind right now Bill, so.....

Gordon Bok is an outstanding folksinger and songwriter and most certainly still alive and a part of a truly wonderful trio also, 'Bok, Muir, & Trickett. The Sandy that Bill referred to is Sandy Paton, a Mudcatter and owner, along with his wife Caroline, of FOLK-LEGACY RECORDS (click here). You will find some more info and many recordings at their site.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 03:34 PM

Jason, try Click here (Gordon Bok Website). (Hope it works!) Susanne

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Celtic.Relics.com
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 03:58 PM

Thanks for the info guys... and I even found my madcat membership during my visit. I plan on returing a little more often... thanks again

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 04:13 PM

Thanks, everyone. Relief pitchers are always welcome when the starter tires. (retires?)

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Apr 00 - 05:29 PM

Ya' better not retire!!!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 12:16 AM

I'm just feeling a bit more tired than usual, Spaw. It's been a pretty exhausting month for me. I'll bounce back in time, I'm sure.

Sandy (feeling his age, for a change)

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 02:54 AM

Jason, you won't find too many better. Just go to Sandy's catalogue and buy the lot with Bok and Bok, Trickett & Muir. I can't envisage anyone with any taste being disappointed. I have them all, and I treasure them.

--Stewie (with an unbiased opinion from Oz)

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Willie-O
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 09:14 AM

Gordon Bok? A treasure.

Last time I had the chance to see him, some grizzled old folkie in his mid-forties was telling Mr. Bok: "Every time I hear you sing, I just want to crawl up in your lap and go to sleep."

He does have that kind of thoughtful, mellow air about him...

W-O

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 07:40 PM

"Grizzled old folkie in his mid-forties"? Oh, Lord, has it finally happened? Just let me at that young whippersnapper and I'll teach him some respect. As soon as I finish my Geritol.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Dani
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 10:07 PM

A month or two ago, by chance I heard a wonderful song sung by Anna Muir (whom I'd never heard of) and played on our local public radio folk show. Never got around to doing the research and tracking it down, but should have, because it was one of those things that was not just lovely, but one of those "messages I needed to hear just when I heard it".

So a couple of weeks ago I'm leafing through the used CD's at a fabulous local music shop, see a familiar (Folk Legacy) logo, and pick it up. Bok, Muir, Trickett. Hmmm. What the heck. Get it home, and what song do you think I heard first?

So now I'm learning a fabulous new song, and about history I'd never heard, and am introduced to some neat new folks like Gordon Bok.

Take a good long break, Sandy, but don't get tired.

Your (plural) work is out there changing people's lives, one at a time.

I'll come up and cook for you sometime so you can kick back and take a well-deserved break. What do you and Caroline like to eat?

Dani

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 01:25 PM

You'll be coming up from down yonder, won'tcha? Do you know how my southern mountain friends make those green beans with salt pork or whatever? Cholesterol city, but "good though!" We'd love to see you, lass.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Dani
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 02:47 PM

Oh, yes, I know just the ones! I am in Southern cooking heaven. Hog heaven is not a metaphor here.

I live across the street from a 'diner', which this non-southern vegetarian imagined would be like some of its Northern cousins. Sigh... My first meal there, the only thing I COULD slop on my plate from the buffet was green beans. Imagine my surprise to find those things floating in them.....

Doesn't mean I can't cook 'em that way, though. If I have to, I can do mean barbecue, and even better biscuits. Like sweet potato pie? That's a holdover from my Charleston days, but cuts that salty fat flavor nicely ;)

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Eluned
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 11:37 AM

Dani, I would LOVE to know which Bok, Muir, and Trickett album that was! I've decided I can afford to buy one album this month, and that it should be Bok, but there are so MANY to choose from, and I was familiar with maybe two of Bok's about .....oh, maybe fifteen years ago (how time flies!)

Eluned

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 12:23 PM

hey Eluned..........If Dani doesn't get back to you, check at FOLK-LEGACY RECORDS. Nice website, but better yet, CALL and talk with Sandy or Caroline. Let them know you're a 'Catter, but ask them which album and also what they'd recommend. No matter what, you'll have a great conversation.....fine folks with great knowledge that they willingly share. You'll love it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: GUEST,mary g
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 02:46 PM

I vote for the one with turning toward the morning on it... mg

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: KathWestra
Date: 01 May 00 - 11:47 AM

My very favorite of Gordon's recordings is "A Rogue's Gallery of Songs for 12-String" -- as the name implies, a collection of tunes and songs accompanied by 12-string guitar. It contains my favorite of Gordon's songs, "Woodworker's Litany." (Not well known, but well worth knowing!) A close second favorite recording is "Return to the Land," which has my tied-for-favorite of Gordon's songs, "Little Red/Pearly" -- a real gem! Best advice is to get rich and buy them all. Kathy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 May 00 - 01:12 PM

Good idea, Kathy! How's the first part of that suggestion accomplished? The second part would be easy. (big grin emoticon here)

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: kendall
Date: 01 May 00 - 04:00 PM

I spent a couple of days with "Little Red". His wife suggested I learn the song and do it. Naturally, David is too modest to do it.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: GUEST,Edel
Date: 02 May 00 - 01:22 PM

I was lucky enough to see Gordon Bok at a house concert in upstate NY in the 70's (yikes). It was fantastic!! I was just reading the words to "Brandy Tree" the other day and it still sends a chill up my spine.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From:
Date: 03 May 00 - 08:16 AM

This is my initial attempt to get on Mudcat. I was recommended to visit here by Newsgroup. I'm new to this web stuff, but have been a folk fanatic for l2 years. About Mr. Bok: I've probably heard about 50 songs by him. Some think he's the real thing. With the exception of two songs which I love (and which I think he wrote) I think he's as phony as a synthicizer in a church. All that mist in his songs and vague, not focused love, puts me off. How do I explain the 2 good ones: "Clear away in the morning" and the other I can't think of now? I can't. Nice talking this way. Hope somebody is listening.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: kendall
Date: 03 May 00 - 11:05 AM

You bet someone is listening..ME.. This man has been my best friend in the whole world for almost 40 years, and, I can guarantee you, he is real. Maybe he is too deep for you??

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 May 00 - 11:14 AM

Well said Kendall !! There's nothing but beauty and great insight in the music and words of this man. Our guest is walkin' on the my fightin' side denigrating my frind also. But some even miss the poetry of Thomas Wolfe's prose too. There's no accounting for testes !

Art

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 May 00 - 11:23 AM

Well Geeziz Kendall......I guess you won't be running for the position of "Official Greeter" will you?

Uh, Guest.......Glad to see you dropped by and I'd like to say that if you stick around, you'll find that though we're an opinionated bunch, we're reasonably friendly too. If you've listened to Kendall Morse's recordings, you'll find that he's a real folkie of the first order. And if you hang around here, you'll also find he's a good Maine boy and loyal to his friends. He's also one of the officers in the Mudcat Curmudgeon Society to which I too belong. But feel free to jump in and give your opinions anyway as we ARE a basically easy-going group that often agrees to disagree.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Night Owl
Date: 03 May 00 - 11:27 AM

Listening here as well...this man's music helped me bury my brother......"as phony as a synthesizer in church"????? I surely hope you revisit his music some time, maybe listen to it in a church. It is impossible for me to say what the DEPTH of this man's music in my ear meant to me...("Sailor's Blessing", "Turning Toward the Morning" etc.etc. etc.)....while watching my brother's casket being lowered in the ground.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Night Owl
Date: 03 May 00 - 11:34 AM

ummmm BTW (by the way) WELCOME to Mudcats....where Spaw keeps us glued together WHILE we disagree with each other. :O)

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Wavestar
Date: 03 May 00 - 12:36 PM

All I can say, Kendall, is you're a very lucky man. I've listened to Gordon Bok all my life, and loved him all that time. If I could sing every song he ever did, I might be satisfied with life.

But probably not. You can never have too much beauty, can you? mrbisok- I disagree with you, but I'd like to know WHY you feel he is phony... what about his music doesn't resonate with you? and whose does?

-J

Subject: RE: tom paxton's along the verdigris
From:
Date: 03 May 00 - 01:45 PM

I am hoping somewhere out there will be able to post the lyrics to tom paxton,s wonderful song, Along the Verdigris. tia, ken

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: kendall
Date: 03 May 00 - 03:19 PM

All hands are welcome here, as Spaw said, even the uninitiated. No accounting for testes? Art?? sneaky..

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Wavestar
Date: 03 May 00 - 03:22 PM

Ken-

You'll be best off creating a new thread asking for those lyrics, because someone may see the Lyric Request and post them for you, who wouldn't look at this thread! Good luck...

-J

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Wavestar
Date: 03 May 00 - 03:26 PM

Ken-

You'll be best off creating a new thread asking for those lyrics, because someone may see the Lyric Request and post them for you, who wouldn't look at this thread! Good luck...

-J

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: GUEST,kat logan
Date: 03 May 00 - 04:57 PM

Kendall,

One of the most magical nights of my life was when you invited me to meet Gordon at your home in Buxton. Sitting beside him on the couch was a thrill beyond thrills but actually feeling the vibration of that incredible voice will resonate through my soul the rest of my life.....thanks for sharing..kat

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: KathWestra
Date: 03 May 00 - 04:58 PM

Add my name to the Gordon Bok Defense League roster!(as if he needed defending!) I'm not from Maine, and I'm not as old as Kendall (*BG*) and therefore can't claim loyalty of the LENGTH Kendall does, but just the same...

Seriously, Gordon is a poet of extraordinary sensitivity, and an incredible singer and musician. A really nice guy, too, who does a lot of sharing music with friends, just for fun. Maybe Gordon's singing is not to our new friend's taste, but is he the Real Thing? ABSOLUTELY!

I have never come across another songwriter more able to capture complex images and emotions in such elegant and evocative language. His cante-fable of "Peter Kagan and the Wind" is a masterpiece of music and words woven together into a magical whole that still brings tears to my eyes 20 years after first hearing. For darn near 30 years now, it's Gordon's music that I've turned to when I want comfort. Night Owl, I'm with you! "Turning Toward the Morning" has been mentioned. He wrote it as a gift for a friend who was in trouble; it became a gift for us all. The "Woodworker's Litany" I mentioned earlier in this thread is one of my ultimate comfort songs. And the "Windcalling" that ends his story of "Another Land Made of Water" is another.

Unlike so many songwriters, Gordon also sings and understands traditional songs, and that deep understanding informs his songwriting (and his tune-writing, for that matter). Someone who didn't have both the knowledge of and the respect for traditional songs couldn't have written songs like "Clear Away in the Morning" or "Mrs. MacDonald's Lament."

And then there is the small matter of how well Gordon plays guitar(s), and viols, and cellos, and just about anything else with strings on it. Most of us guitar players spend our lives wishing we could be just HALF that good.

The Real Thing? YOU BET! Kathy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: kendall
Date: 03 May 00 - 05:21 PM

Sure Kat..you didn't go into a rapture sitting beside ME on the couch!! Maybe it's because I can be had, and he can't?? lol luv ya anyway..

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 May 00 - 05:26 PM

Well, I've only known Gordon for a little over a quarter of a century, but this much I know. He may not be to your liking, but he sure ain't phony.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 03 May 00 - 06:39 PM

And Gordon's latest CD, In the Kind Land, was actually recorded in a church -- with no synthesizers in the vicinity. I agree with everything that's been said here. One of my most memorable afternoons was spent in Gordon's house in January of 1990, I believe, with about a dozen other people, sharing songs. I was spending a month doing "temp work" in Topsham, and had gotten to know Gordon the previous summer at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. The late Jan Harmon was there, and Carol Rohl, and maybe you were there too, Kendall. Pure heaven.

Mrbisok, welcome to the Mudcat. I think you'll find that while people here do tend to get a little bristly at disparaging comments, especially when directed at people they know and love, by and large this community is willing to tolerate a fairly wide range of opinions and beliefs. And, as I think you can see, people are listening. Enjoy!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 May 00 - 06:44 PM

All of this and not to mention that Gordon Bok was the inspiration for the

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: raredance
Date: 03 May 00 - 08:10 PM

Gordon Bok, live in Fargo, is one of my great unfulfilled dreams.

rich r

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 04 May 00 - 12:00 AM

Just couldn't bring yourself to say it, eh, Spaw?

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 May 00 - 12:32 AM

In 1975 Gordon played a coffee house I managed in Auburn NY at The Community College there. He and I had corresponded for about a year before that and one day he called and said "I'm coming your way. Can you swing a Wednessday night gig for $250.00?" I said sure. We booked him and he played a half hour longer than planned. He packed the place. He was generous with his time and his consideration of all involved. (Especially his opening act, Don Meixner and Mike Waters.) He stayed at my house and we swapped songs for awhile, drank his bottle of Mount Gay Rum and smoked my cigarettes. And we talked long into the night on the relative merits of Dorys as a hull type, Gaff rig as opposed to a high aspect sail. Lea boards for shoal water rather than a center board. Long about 3:30 am we made scrambled eggs and ham, coffee with rum and sugar. Before he left in the afternoon he gave me a copy of Ruth Moore's book "Cold as a Dog and the Wind Northeast" . I still have the book and the memory. A genuine article? No doubt in my mind.

Don

He even did the dishes before he left.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Barbara
Date: 04 May 00 - 03:55 AM

Some people are made really uncomfortable by the naked emotion in his songs. I've played him for people who loved the music, and for those who were embarrassed for me, and him, to sing about personal feelings (what oughta be kept private). I don't agree. This world needs more people who will publicly speak the truth about what matters to them. I've loved his music for a long time, only sometimes I think he -- and I, we take ourselves too seriously. As Garrison Keillor says, " God writes a lot of comedy, but She's got a lot of bad actors."
The worst thing I ever heard said about him was said by neighbors down the road who were unfamiliar with folk music generally. I gave a copy of one of the Bok/Trickett/Muir albums, said I thought they'd enjoy it. When next I saw them, they said it wasn't bad. "Sounds like Peter, Paul and Mary, doesn't it?", they said.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 04 May 00 - 11:05 AM

Remember, he may have written "Turning Toward the Morning," but he also wrote "Old Fat Boat." Even in "Peter Kagan and the Wind" there's a bit of humor lurking in the wings.

And, Don: he did dishes here, too. Claimed it was good for the callouses on his fingertips. Just about ruined my "Gee, Honey, I'd help, but it'll soften the callouses..." excuse!

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Amergin
Date: 04 May 00 - 11:39 AM

He wrote Peter Kagan and the Wind? I love that story!! Hell, I'll have to check him out.

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: Eluned
Date: 31 May 00 - 11:59 PM

Thanks, folks, for all of the suggestions!

'spaw; I'll definitely look them up!! (I've bookmarked the site on my 'short list' file)

KathWestra; thanks for the suggestions. Sadly, "A Rogue's Gallery.." doesn't seem to be listed here on Mudcat (I'll make like odin and keep an eye out for it), but others are.
And, until I win the lottery and can buy them all, I'LL HAVE THAT FINE MUSIC!!

Mrbisok, I hope you've checked back with Mudcat since you posted, and enjoyed some of the discussions. Personally, I've heard in his music joy, and a love of music. Not so vague and misty to me, but tastes differ.

Amergin; wrote Peter Kagan? Heck, he TELLS it!! That was one of the albums I had (and would still have.... but that's a long story, and loved so much those many years ago.

For all those who made suggestions and enriched this thread with wonderful bits about a really nice guy and ardent musician, I just wanted to say, thanks for the hints and stories!

Subject: RE: Who is Gordon Bok??
From: KathWestra
Date: 01 Jun 00 - 02:26 PM

Eluned -- Rogue's Gallery is definitely still available, both on cassette and as a CD. Try Folk-Legacy's website or e-mail Sandy at [e-mail] And I'm pretty sure Sandy has reissued Peter Kagan as a CD too, so if you're feeling flush... Kathy