Gordon Bok
Encyclopedia
Gordon Bok is a folklorist and singer/songwriter who grew up in Camden
, Maine
.
Folkways imprint (not to be confused with Moe Asch's Folkways Records
). His second album, A Tune for November, was released on Sandy Paton's Connecticut
-based Folk-Legacy
label in 1970. His association with Folk-Legacy
has continued since that time, though his more recent work (from the early 1990s on) has been released on his own label, Timberhead Music. For a long time, he was best known as part of a trio with Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir, Trickett accompanying with the hammered dulcimer
and guitar
and Muir with the harp
and flute
.
Bok sings in a rich baritone
and plays six-string guitar (both the steel-string acoustic guitar
and the nylon-string classical guitar
) and 12-string guitar. In his playing of the nylon-string guitar he embraces the tradition of Latin America
n guitar music. He also plays a self-built instrument he calls the cellamba, a six-string, fretted cello
.
As a songwriter
, Bok draws on his experience in and around the working boat culture of the Gulf of Maine
. He spins into song the diverse voices of fishermen
and other sea-folk, crafting a penetrating vignette or a full-fledged ballad
-song as the material demands. At times (especially in his best work of the 1970s), he reaches deep into the wealth of sea myth that haunts the North Atlantic
. To animate these legends of Selkie
-folk, sea fairies
and boat spirit
s, he resorts to freer forms, producing records like Seal Djiril's Hymn, where song and spoken verse
are interspersed, or composing cantefables (e.g. "Saben the Woodfitter") in which spoken narrative blends with sudden song-phrasings.
As much energy as Bok invests in making songs - many of which ("Dillan Bay", "The Hills of Isle au Haut", "Turning Toward the Morning") have grown permanent roots in the rough shores of New England and have all but passed into tradition - he is equally energetic as a folklorist and gatherer of songs. His repertoire overflows with contemporary songs written by his friends from all over North America
, Australia
, and the British Isles
, but it only starts there: he sings, in the original language
s, folksongs from Italy
, Portugal
, Mongolia
, French Canada
, Latin America, and the Gaelic Hebrides
, among other places, not mentioning the huge body of old anglophone folklore over which he exercises mastery.
He is also an artist
/master craftsman
mainly dealing with sea themes done in wood carving
s.
.
Camden, Maine
Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,254 at the 2000 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is a famous summer colony in the Mid-Coast region of Maine...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
.
Career
His first album, self-titled, was produced by Noel Paul Stookey (Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and released in 1965 on the Verve RecordsVerve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
Folkways imprint (not to be confused with Moe Asch's Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
). His second album, A Tune for November, was released on Sandy Paton's Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
-based Folk-Legacy
Folk-Legacy Records
Folk-Legacy Records is an independent recording company specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1961 by Sandy and Caroline Paton along with the late Lee Baker Haggerty...
label in 1970. His association with Folk-Legacy
Folk-Legacy Records
Folk-Legacy Records is an independent recording company specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1961 by Sandy and Caroline Paton along with the late Lee Baker Haggerty...
has continued since that time, though his more recent work (from the early 1990s on) has been released on his own label, Timberhead Music. For a long time, he was best known as part of a trio with Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir, Trickett accompanying with the hammered dulcimer
Hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and Muir with the harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
and flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
.
Bok sings in a rich baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
and plays six-string guitar (both the steel-string acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
and the nylon-string classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
) and 12-string guitar. In his playing of the nylon-string guitar he embraces the tradition of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n guitar music. He also plays a self-built instrument he calls the cellamba, a six-string, fretted cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
.
As a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, Bok draws on his experience in and around the working boat culture of the Gulf of Maine
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America.It is delineated by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast. It includes the entire coastlines of the U.S...
. He spins into song the diverse voices of fishermen
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
and other sea-folk, crafting a penetrating vignette or a full-fledged ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
-song as the material demands. At times (especially in his best work of the 1970s), he reaches deep into the wealth of sea myth that haunts the North Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. To animate these legends of Selkie
Selkie
Selkies are mythological creatures that are found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore....
-folk, sea fairies
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
and boat spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
s, he resorts to freer forms, producing records like Seal Djiril's Hymn, where song and spoken verse
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
are interspersed, or composing cantefables (e.g. "Saben the Woodfitter") in which spoken narrative blends with sudden song-phrasings.
As much energy as Bok invests in making songs - many of which ("Dillan Bay", "The Hills of Isle au Haut", "Turning Toward the Morning") have grown permanent roots in the rough shores of New England and have all but passed into tradition - he is equally energetic as a folklorist and gatherer of songs. His repertoire overflows with contemporary songs written by his friends from all over North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
, but it only starts there: he sings, in the original language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s, folksongs from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, French Canada
French Canada
French Canada, also known as "Lower Canada", is a term to distinguish the French Canadian population of Canada from English Canada.-Definition:...
, Latin America, and the Gaelic Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
, among other places, not mentioning the huge body of old anglophone folklore over which he exercises mastery.
He is also an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
/master craftsman
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
mainly dealing with sea themes done in wood carving
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...
s.
Personal life
Gordon is the grandson of Edward Bok, the cousin of Derek Bok, and the uncle of Gideon BokGideon Bok
Gideon Bok is an American painter who lives and works in Maine. He earned his B.A. from Hampshire College and his M.F.A. from Yale University...
.
Works alone and with friends
- Gordon Bok (1965)
- A Tune for November (1970)
- Peter Kagan and the Wind (1971)
- Seal Djiril's Hymn (1972)
- Cold as a Dog and the Wind Northeast: The Spoken Ballads of Ruth MooreRuth MooreRuth Moore was an important Maine author of the twentieth century. She is best known for her honest portrayals of Maine people and evocative descriptions of the state. Now primarily thought of as a regional writer, Moore was a significant literary figure on the national stage during her career...
(1973) - Bay of Fundy (1975)
- Another Land Made of Water (1979)
- Jeremy Brown and Jeannie Teal (1981)
- A Rogue's Gallery of Songs for the 12-String (1983)
- Clear Away in the Morning (1983, a thematic compilation of previously released work)
- Ensemble (1988)
- The Play of the Lady Odivere (1989)
- Return to the Land (1990)
- Schooners (1992)
- North Wind's Clearing (1995, a thematic compilation of previously released work)
- Neighbors (1996, with Cindy KalletCindy KalletCindy Kallet is an American folk singer/songwriter from New England. She currently performs solo, with Grey Larsen, and as part of the trio of Kallet, Epstein & Cicone...
) - Gatherings (1998)
- In the Kind Land (1999)
- Dear to our Island (2001)
- Herrings in the Bay (2003)
- Apples in the Basket (2005)
- Gordon Bok in Concert (2006)
- Other Eyes (2010)
Works with Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir
- Turning Toward the Morning (1975)
- The Ways of Man (1978)
- A Water Over Stone (1980)
- All Shall Be Well Again (1983)
- Fashioned in the Clay (1985)
- Minneapolis Concert (live album, 1987)
- The First 15 Years (a 2-vol. comp. from earlier recordings, 1990)
- And So Will We Yet (1990)
- Language of the Heart (1994)
- Harbors of Home (1998)
Appears on
- Ed Trickett, Gently Down the Stream of Time
- Ann Mayo Muir, So Goes My Heart
- Margaret MacArthurMargaret MacArthurMargaret MacArthur was an American singer and player of the Appalachian dulcimer.Margaret Crowl was born in Chicago. As a youngster, she moved around with her family - in California, Louisiana, and Arizona. She remembered that at the age of five she heard cowboys on the timber crew singing folk...
, The Old Songs (1975) - Anne Dodson, From Where I Sit
- Cindy KalletCindy KalletCindy Kallet is an American folk singer/songwriter from New England. She currently performs solo, with Grey Larsen, and as part of the trio of Kallet, Epstein & Cicone...
, This Way Home - The New Golden Ring, Five Days Singing
- The Quasimodal Chorus, The Songs of Jan Harmon