Porter Block

After writing, recording and releasing three albums, Peter Block wanted a new songwriting challenge. He didn’t need to go far to find inspiration for his new project, he just looked at all the creativity that was happening in the neighborhood his recording studio is in, Gowanus, Brooklyn. Peter wanted to make a collaborative album, one that was a musical dialogue with songwriters he admired. He contacted eleven New York songwriters, some he had never met, and asked them to co-write and record with him. The resulting album, The Gowanus Yacht Club, is a snapshot of the New York City songwriter scene as well as a collection of summer ready pop songs.

The songwriters involved in Gowanus Yacht Club are an impressive lot with a good deal of licensing and publishing success. The one non-New Yorker in the group, Angela McCluskey, is a Grammy nominated artist with her band Telepopmusik for their hit “Breathe”. Casey Shea, formerly of the infamous NYC band The Undisputed Heavyweights, will have one of his songs featured in the season finale of One Tree Hill. Terry Radigan has had her songs preformed by Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless and Anuna (featured in Riverdance) and Wes Hutchinson has had songs in several tv shows including CW's Gossip Girl, MTV's Laguna Beach and Fox’s Roswell. Nate Campany, who signed to Warner Chappell and Topline Music in 2006, has written for top artists including Backstreet Boys, The Click Five, Teddy Geiger, Tyler Hilton, and Morningwood.

The songs on Gowanus Yacht Club were written without any imposed parameters or themes, but ultimately ended up, in the classic pop song tradition, being mostly love songs of some sort. All came about in different ways, but all came easily and somewhat quickly. “Daylight Dreaming” was co-written with Wes Hutchinson on a flaming red Baldwin Piano and a J200 jumbo acoustic at Gibson and was based on an idea of a walking daydreamer that had been in Peter’s head for months that Wes helped flesh out into a power pop song. “Your Heart Is A Broken Thing” was a co-write with Luke Janklow written with Angela McCluskey’s voice in mind. When she heard the song, she loved it and agreed to record it as a duet with Peter. The other duet, “Walk Away”, co-written with Terry Radigan, is just as strong when sung as a solo, but was recorded as a duet to reflect the collaborative process. “Everybody Knows” was one of the last songs written. Nate Campany and Peter sat down and listened to all the other tracks to find what was missing from the album. The result is a bouncy song that deals with the issue of dependence and tells the story of the unwinding of a troubled soul.

Gowanus Yacht Club has a cohesive feel despite the many diverse songwriters who contributed to the album. Beyond the obvious common denominator of Peter, the other consistent piece of this project was the band. Jeff Jacobson and Casey Shea, both co-writers on the album, along with Peter and Jamie Alegre, became the band for the album. Their playing gave the songs a consistency that makes the Gowanus Yacht Club feel like an album rather than a compilation.

"Porter Block may be the missing link between folk and rock. The New York City-based band's driving beats and catchy choruses are what rock 'n' roll is all about, but their insightful lyrics and skill on acoustic and slide guitar allude to a more sensitive side." - Performing Songwriter