Over the past dozen years or so, John Voorhees has played in numerous coffeehouses and music festivals between Louisiana and Vermont. He has released 5 full-length CDs of original music, his songs have been included in three CD compilations and he has opened for such nationally-known artists as Livingston Taylor.
Burlington, VT's "Seven Days" arts magazine described John as "a self-deprecating wordsmith who knows a thing or two about melody... A modern folk popster who seems in love with the world and doesn't need to make himself the center of it."
Listeners have compared his performance style to John Denver, Don McLean, Billy Joel, Phil Ochs and James Taylor (but he wishes he sounded more like Ray Charles).
John was born in Michigan, but raised in the town of Hammond, LA, an easy hour's drive from both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In the late 1980's, John DJ'd for his college radio station, absorbing the tunes of REM, Elvis Costello, They Might Be Giants and XTC. In the summer of 1990, John picked up an acoustic guitar and hasn't put it down yet.
John's first songs, written during the first Bush administration, were very political and addressed such topics as freedom of speech, unchecked corporate power and the Gulf War. His more recent material tends to explore personal politics with songs about dysfunctional relationships, hypocrisy and the power of natural cycles, equilibrium and fate.
