James bourke

About me:

a folk singer,traveling minstrel , i"ve sung all over the world. i mostly now sing in chicago. you can catch me in the warm months at the Lincoln park zoo. i help create the folk music hall of fame in Yonkers n.y. along with George maritime (a.k.a. the communist )now the existing director.through the years i had opportunities to further my career into the commercial market of music.but do to circumstances i chose different routes. i am now energized more than i have ever been in my career,( " am now ready to go any where even to for fade.") from Dylan's mr. tambourine man. i spent my formative years 1977to 83 singing on the streets of Berkeley ca. and San Francisco.i had something to do with the peoples park movement. i learned to play guitar in Florida at the age of 13. when i was 14, i"d take my guitar to my N.E. high school campus and sing like a preacher man. I moved to north lauderdale in 1969 when I was going on 12 from maywood il. where i grew up,. in 2001. I had just moved back into maywood Il.. in a childhood friends house. Freddy the house owner( now the late Freddy.) he was reading a article on Maxwell street. and heard my talents singing and said, what u need is exposure. so he he kind of become my promoter. and manager. and got me down to Maxwell st.(he was a big fan of Maxwell st. in the 60s.) I performed on bobby davis's blue's show a month before 911.and did live performance several time on Maxwell street to save it. one memorial one was for an hour.singing woody Guthrie songs &folk blue's #s I had.learned over the years.whats strange it was the was 2 days before 911. and Maxwell st. blue's was performed .2 weeks later.