Gordon Bok (born October 31, 1939) is an American folklorist and singer-songwriter, who grew up in Camden, Maine and is associated with music from New England.

Career

Bok's first album, self-titled, was produced by

Noel Paul Stookey Noel Paul Stookey (born December 30, 1937) is an American singer-songwriter and activist who is known for being a member of the 1960s folk music, folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary along with Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers. He has been known by his f ...

(Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and released in 1965 on the

Verve Records Verve Records is an active American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Ca ...

' Verve Folkways subsidiary. His second album, ''A Tune for November'', was released on Sandy Paton's

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

-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. Some of his best-known work was done as part of a trio with Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir, Trickett accompanying with the

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-string instrument which consists of String (music), strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board (music), sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set bef ...

and guitar and Muir with the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. Bok is a deep bass and plays six-string guitar (both the

steel-string acoustic guitar The steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar that descends from the gut-strung Romantic guitar, but is strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. Like the modern classical guitar, it is often referred to simply ...

and the nylon-string classical guitar) and

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

. 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 The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northea ...

. His lyrics include stories of

fishermen 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 fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

and other sea-folk. At times (especially in the 1970s), he reaches into the wealth of sea

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

of the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

. In addition to writing songs, he is also a folklorist and gatherer of songs. His repertoire includes contemporary songs from North America, Australia, and the British Isles. Additionally, Bok sings, in the original

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s, folksongs from Italy, Portugal, Mongolia, French Canada, Latin America, and the Hebrides, among other places, and knows a huge body of old anglophone folklore. Bok is also an artist mainly dealing with sea themes done in

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) 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 sculpture, ...

Personal life

Bok is the grandson of Edward Bok, the cousin of

Derek Bok Derek Curtis Bok (born March 22, 1930) is an American lawyer and educator, and former president of Harvard University. Early life and education Bok was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Following his parents' divorce, he, his mother, brother and ...

, and the uncle of Gideon Bok. He is married to Carol Rohl.

Discography

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 Moore'' (1973) * ''Clearwater'' (1974) * ''Bay of Fundy'' (1975) * ''Clearwater II'' (1977) * ''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 Kallet) * ''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) * ''Because You Asked'' (2012) * ''Then & Now'' (2015) * ''Together Again for the First Time'' (2017) * ''Windcalling'' (2023)

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)

Other appearances

* Ed Trickett, ''The Telling Takes Me Home'' * Ed Trickett, ''Gently Down the Stream of Time'' * Ann Mayo Muir, ''So Goes My Heart'' * Margaret MacArthur, ''The Old Songs'' (1975) * Anne Dodson, ''From Where I Sit'' * Cindy Kallet, ''This Way Home'' * The New Golden Ring, ''Five Days Singing'' * The Quasimodal Chorus, ''The Songs of Jan Harmon'' * Cathy Barton, Dave Para & the Paton Family,'' ′Twas on a Night Like This (A Christmas Legacy)'' (1989)

References

External links

Official site for Bok and Timberhead Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bok, Gordon 1939 births Living people American folk musicians People from Camden, Maine Musicians from Philadelphia American baritones Curtis family Singer-songwriters from Pennsylvania American folk singers American male singer-songwriters