Upcoming Shows and a New Song

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 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 slash federal staff and freeze already-approved funds at dozens of critical government agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, USAID, the National Parks Service — even funds for cancer research. 

As I wrote eight years ago, after Trump was first elected, "my very faith in humanity, in the innate goodness of most people, was deeply shaken. For the first time in my life, I felt myself doubting whether people really are good. And I realize that deep down, this might be my greatest fear: That people actually suck, and I've been wrong about them all this time - that my enduring faith in humanity is misplaced." 

That fear of misplaced faith, the deep sadness and disbelief I feel grieving the country and people I love as they succumb to the cruel and petty whims of a serial sexual abuser and convicted felon who makes it clear, again and again, that he is driven by self-interest, racism, and mean-spirited grievance... it's something that still weighs heavily on me every day, and it's very much part of this protest song.  

I wrote this because I had to get it out, and maybe it will prove cathartic for you, too. Here are the chords and lyrics if you'd like to play along: 

Prince of Corruption

Intro: C  //  G  //  F/C // G    

[C] I’ve been [G] looking for [F/C/G] something

[C] A scrap of [G] hope to [F/C/G] feed my soul

[C] It’s been [G] awhile since [F/C/G] I have been half full

I’ve been feeling so empty

Hollowed out down to my doubt

Like someone tipped me over and poured me out

[F] There’s no [G] defense or making [Em] sense 

Of what has [Am] happened [G]

[F] They fly their [G] flags of hatred [Em] high 

Like it’s the latest [Am] fashion [G] 

[F] Heaven tell me, I’ve a [C] right to know

Why are we [G] drowning down here in the [C] undertow?

[F] Fighting so hard just to [C] stay afloat

While a [G] great white devil circles [C] down below

Can you tell me something

Mister Holier Than Thou

Where does Jesus say to cast thy neighbor out?

I’m having trouble believing

What has happened to the ones I love

Praising God ‘til the Devil called their bluff

I guess my faith was just misplaced with my delusions

I’m face to face with the disgrace of being human

Heaven tell me, I’ve a right to know

Why are we drowning down here in the undertow?

I thought we settled all this years ago

Now the old Jim Crow is back with polio

Bridge: 

[F] My country, [E7] ‘tis of thee [Am] I sing in [G] elegy

[F] O say can you [E7] see what’s on the [Am] TV

We’re tipping toward [G] tyranny

Heaven tell me, I’ve a right to know…

We see the fires burning

We live in chaos, floods, and fear

And you blame our better angels with a sneer?

Now I ain’t feeling so empty

In fact I’m full — I’m full of rage

A righteous fury has taken sorrow’s place

We won’t stand by or turn our eyes from this Deconstruction

We won’t be sold to your paroled Prince of Corruption

Devil hear me I will break your spell

We will beat you back into your sleaze hotel

Whatever tricks you try to pull or sell

We’re gonna fight you to the very gates of hell

(c) 2025 by Jon Gorey, all rights reserved 

Free outdoor show on August 11th!

Hello friends, happy summer! I'm excited to let you know that I'll be playing a free set of original tunes at the inaugural Friends Rock Music Festival at Quincy's beautiful Ruth Gordon Amphitheater on Sunday, August 11th! 

There'll be a bunch of local musicians playing all day, plus beer and wine from Breakrock Brewing, tasty food from Black's Creek BBQ, Gangnam Spice, and South Shore Taco Guy, an ice cream truck, pop-up bookstore, henna tattoos, plus crafts, jewelry, and other vendors! 

Kids and dogs are welcome — and let me know if you have any song requests!

Show details: 

Friends Rock Music Festival

• Ruth Gordon Amphitheater at Pageant Field
• One Merrymount Parkway in Quincy 
• 12pm–8pm  | (Jon Gorey at 4pm)
• FREE

Free show alert: I'm playing an original set (for real life!) on Saturday, July 22nd

One day this spring, Gina heard an unbelievable rumor: Construction crews were getting ready to demolish and fill in the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater, a natural outdoor performance space at Quincy's Pageant Field. 

Overlooking the Atlantic, Pageant Field is the crowning jewel of the city's parks system. It received some upgrades this spring, including a new water-view picnic pavilion and a half-mile walking path around the park. And, it turns out, the city was also getting ready to fill in the underused theater as part of the project — something we only learned about and confirmed after a friend at the Quincy Tree Alliance spoke to a parks employee at the construction site days before demolition.  

I was flabbergasted and furious. The amphitheater is built into the slope of a hill, with terraced rows of seating facing a large, stone-studded stage. It's kinda beautiful, and it was one of the things I remember loving about Quincy when we first decided to move here. 

But it's been years since the city has funded performances at the theater, and so apparently officials thought it was in a state of disuse. (Despite the fact that kids love to put on impromptu plays there all the time.) 

Anyway, we and other local artists and activists bombarded city officials with emails and phone calls, and after enough outcry they hastily walked back the idea. A group called Friends of the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater formed, led by the daughter of the theater's original architect, and they convinced the city to fund a concert series every Friday night this summer. 

All of which is to say two things: 1) Activism works, get involved in stuff! And 2) I'm playing a set of original (!) songs on Friday, July 14th  (scratch that, the Friday show was rained out! new date is Saturday, July 22nd) around 7:30pm (show goes 6:30pm–8:30pm). 

Biennial update on my well-being and whereabouts

So, um, it looks like I haven't updated this site in a wee bit, eh? Funny how time does that! Well then, here are a few bits of news for you.

Last week I learned that I won two awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association. If you had told me 20 years ago that anyone anywhere would actually pay me real American dollars to write about traveling — perhaps the single greatest pursuit of human kind outside of love, family, and music — and that I'd actually win an award for such a thing, well... I'd have laughed you right out of the pub. And yet, here we are. Here are the winning stories:

Kid County, Ireland (Gold Winner, Family Travel category)
It’s no Orlando (and thank God for that), but Ireland doesn’t need the Disney touch to feel like a magical playground for your own little leprechauns.

Road Trip, Meet Field Trip (Honorable Mention, Family Travel category)
Sometimes the best souvenir isn’t what you buy, but what you learn.

I should probably also tell you that last June, I won a handful of awards in the National Association of Real Estate Editors' 69th annual journalism contest -- including:

• President's Gold Award, Best Freelance Collection 
• Silver Winner, Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Residential Real Estate (for Borderline Behavior: How Fear, Feuds, and Blunders Gave Massachusetts Towns Such Strange Shapes and When Romances Fail, Real Estate Gets Ugly)
• Silver Winner, Best Real Estate Blog (for House & Hammer)
• Bronze Winner, Best Architecture Story (for Tax Shelters: As the Filing Deadline Looms, a Look at How Taxes Have Shaped Our Architecture)
• Honorable Mention, Best Magazine Real Estate Story (for A Beginner’s Guide to Buying an Old House) 

But I think my favorite thing I've written in the past year was this piece — about busking in beautiful Asheville, N.C.

Blue Ridge Serenade: Asheville Makes Artsy Look Easy
There’s a lot to love about Asheville, from the local-first food scene to its Brooklyn-in-the-mountains sense of style to the warm welcome you receive in a city that loves you back. But art comes especially easy here; it’s everywhere. Music fills the bars, but also the streets, where buskers entertain tourists and lunch-hour diners. There’s art on the walls of its galleries, working studios, coffee shops, and a lot of the building exteriors, too. And in autumn, nature is doing her part, painting the surrounding mountains in Impressionistic blots of red, orange, and gold.

Finally, on another musical note, I'll be singing Irish and other tunes at the Monument Tavern in Charlestown on Saint Patrick's Day (Tuesday, March 17th) from 6pm-9pm. Come hoist a pint if you're in the area!

Another year over, a new one just begun

Well, that was some year, huh? Remarkably, we made it to the other side. Whew!

In the spirit of reflection and hopefulness, I thought I'd share what I consider my best work of 2017 - the stuff that helped get me through an often dispiriting year and makes me excited to keep creating in 2018.

As you might know, I've been writing more words than music lately (though the horrific shooting in Las Vegas all but demanded a rewrite of They Make Angels, five years and no gun laws later). Here are the 10 stories I enjoyed writing the most this year.

Thank you if you've read any of these already -- and for supporting journalism in any form these days, whether it's a newspaper subscription or NPR membership. And thank you if you've listened to my music, or supported other independent artists this year. (If you're curious, my favorite new discovery of the year, courtesy of the Newport Folk Festival, were the Wild Reeds. My God, I would let their harmonies lull me into eternity.)

Ok, away we go:

1. New England's Brewery Coast (Boston Globe Magazine)
My best friend Adam and I took a road trip up the coast to visit some of New England's best breweries, from Salem, Mass., to Freeport, Maine. (And I got paid - in real dollars, not like favors or gift cards - to write about it! So maybe 2017 wasn't such a bad year after all.)

2. When Sears Sold the American Dream (Boston Globe)
Long before you could buy a flat-pack bedroom set from IKEA and spend an afternoon sweating and swearing as you put it together at home, Americans were ordering entire houses by mail that were shipped by rail and ready for hopeful homeowners to assemble piece by piece. From immigration and racial redlining to streetcar suburbs and the World Wars to Amazon.com, many of the dominant themes of modern American history are wrapped up in the fascinating story of Sears kit houses.

3. Is This the Best Disney Soundtrack Ever? (Apartment Therapy)
I was incredulous when he first suggested it, but Adam helped me realize that "Moana" may be the best Disney soundtrack of all time, as determined by a totally scientific, in no way subjective song ranking.

4. It’s About Time You Went to Nova Scotia (Boston Globe)
We finally made good on a vacation to Nova Scotia -- one of those trips you keep promising yourself but never seem to take; it’s so close on a map, you just assume you’ll get there eventually.

5. The Fix Is Out: America's Throwaway Mentality (Boston Globe)
There's a new math behind a decision we all grapple with at one point or another: When a household item breaks, do we repair it or just replace it? Increasingly, Americans are choosing the latter — even for big-ticket items like furniture and major appliances.

6. The Enviable Walkability of 'Home Alone' (Apartment Therapy)
There's a big reason eight-year-old Kevin McCallister gets along just fine on his own - and it's something that's increasingly hard to find in American neighborhoods.

7. The ABCs and 123s of DIY (Boston Globe)
Back in high school, I scoffed when my math teachers insisted that the geometry formulas and algebraic equations we were learning would be useful in real life. Then we remodeled our kitchen.

8. The Stark Racial Inequality of Homeownership (Apartment Therapy)
The "land of opportunity" is looking more like the "land of staggering inequity."

9. Four Lessons From Pre-Cana That Any Couple Can Use (Boston Globe Magazine)
Any Catholic planning a wedding knows about the church’s premarital counseling — and among the more lapsed members of the flock, it’s sure to elicit a groan. And yet, a decade of happy marriage later, Pre-Cana stands out as one of our most important wedding preparations.

10. Can Gentrifiers Help Fight Gentrification? (Apartment Therapy)
Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. I spoke to some remarkably thoughtful and self-aware sociologists for this one.

 *  *  *  *  *

I hope good things like peace, hope, beauty, justice, good health, and happiness await you in 2018. And as for New Year's resolutions, I hope this year-end greeting contains some new songs for you a year from now. Until then, happy New Year!

Praying for Time (Among Other Things)

I recorded this song on my phone yesterday, in memory of George Michael. I'll tell you why, and what it means to me, after the jump.
 

Those who know me will tell you, without hesitation, that I'm an optimistic person and always have been -- perhaps overly so. I walk around this world grinning like some kind of delusional madman because I really do love life and the people in it.

I hope for the best, and unfailingly look for silver linings when the best doesn't happen. My wife would tell you this can be inspiring, but also wicked annoying. But either way, that's me.

However, something happened to me after Nov. 8th, 2016 -- something that tossed me into a long, deep, and uncharacteristic depression -- and I only recently realized the true reason for my existential crisis.