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BIO Buffalo, NY artist ROB FALGIANO lives under the Big Singer-Songwriter Tent, with eclectic musical influences: jazz, funk, 1950s rock & country, bossa nova, 70s folk, 80s new wave, R&B, electronica, and the Great American Songbook. Artists whose music he loves but doesn't necessarily sound like include Chris Cornell, Tom Waits, Bruce Hornsby, O.C. (Omar Credle) (NSFW), Blossom Dearie, Brazilian Girls, Slayer (yes, Slayer), R. Kelly, Bird & The Bee, Hoagy Carmichael, Rihanna, Kirsty MacColl, Talk Talk, and tons more. You may have not heard of some of these artists, which is a shame. The list could probably be amended every day for at least 5 years. Genres are somewhat a construct invented by critics and listeners in order to satisfy the very relatable human desire to try to understand perceived differences in composition and sounds, but to people who love music there aren't really genres, or at least no meaningful hard lines between them. Sometimes the only difference between a "folk song" and a "rock song" is whether it's played on an acoustic guitar or a Les Paul with a cranked half-stack. If you play the same song with a drum machine and keyboards now it's "electronic?" It's all music. There are no bad genres, only good and bad songs, which is also somewhat subjective. One man's silence is another man's song. Rob's latest CD is Little Vision, aka CD 9. He feels it's his strongest collection to date in terms of end to end playability. He thinks he finally got the track order right. This may also be true of Nice Mouth, aka CD 8. Rob's 10th and 11th recordings, god willing (possibly literally), will be Back With The Dreamers (75% done, for 2020?) and Everything Is Only The Beginning (25% done, for 2023-25??). Back With The Dreamers is Rob's fourth project with producer Mike Rorick, without whom it might still be able to come into existence, but lacking tremendous beauty in collaboration. Dating back to about 1987 Falgiano has likely recorded about 200 of his songs in studio, and probably written 400 or 500 in all. Other unwatered seed fragments likely equal thousands. The purpose of volume is only to hit the target by trying enough times, when inspiration strikes like lightning, though perfection is always the starting hope. Endless fascination with the emotional qualities of sound combined with accumulated knowledge and perception of music (the best of math and magic) makes the somewhat sacred act of creation that much more pleasurable and ever new. Sound waves go into your body and make your organs resonate. An emotional experience need never be far away when songs are well performed and come from an honest place, either for audience or author, and ideally both. In music and life, please don't mistake pretense for intelligence or brilliance, or simplicity and musical complexity as being in competition. Hank Williams had an eighth grade education and could barely spell, but remains one of America's most beloved singer-songwriters because he spoke from the heart and his melodies are unbeatable, even when only using two or three chords. (Even Bob Dylan thinks so.) Some Paddy McAloon songs have 20 chords and will likely elude my complete compositional comprehension in this lifetime, though I get a little closer all the time. You may have never heard of Paddy McAloon because he gave his band a silly name. What kind of world is this anyway? There is ALWAYS someone exciting and new whose music you haven't heard, but may yet hear, which will take you by surprise and blow your mind. Some terrific songwriters become well known and some don't. All songwriters die but songwriting never dies, even when it goes underground in the streaming age of laughably fractional ($.000000000001 per play?) "royalties." Rob's songs have been heard on some TV shows with modest financial gain, and on rare occasions, nearly a mortgage payment: 'Friday Night Lights' (NBC), 'Felicity' (WB), 'The Black Donnellys' (NBC), 'Everwood' (CW-ABC Family), 'Dude I Just Want My Pants Back' (MTV), and 'General Hospital' (ABC). Opening slots for a dozen national artists include: Jakob Dylan, Nickel Creek, Ingrid Michaelson, Three Dog Night, Matthew Good, Nellie McKay, and talented fellow Buffalonian (now Bostonian) Chris Trapper. Falgiano's first book, God Laughs at Dirty Jokes, was released in the fall of 2014, and is, in a nutshell, an argument in favor of at least a fifth dimension, thinly hidden, and possibly many more. (Infinite like Pi?) A potential second book, Life Is Magic, is half-written. If it turns out good when / if it's completed it will see daylight. The bar is set higher for self-approval of full-length books. Songs are somewhat easier by comparison because a narrative, or concept, even when abstract, need last only two, three, four or more minutes at a time, before another song takes over, while a book should ideally have a voice or throughline running from page one to two hundred fifty, compelling you to read it in one sitting, whether you're able to or not. That's also when you know it's good. - - - '...an
opening set by singer/ songwriter Rob Falgiano, whose remarkable vocal
range turned some heads.' -
Joe Sweeney, Buffalo News (Ingrid Michaelson concert review)
'Funk-rock band grooves with hints of soul and jazz, influenced by
groups like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and the Robert Glasper
Experiment.' -
Cory Perla, The Public 'His
use of digital blips and beats as flourishes sound something like Elvis
Costello singing with the Postal Service.' -
Peter Vullo, Artvoice
'Rob Falgiano took to the stage first. In a way, he was both Simon and
Garfunkel. His stature and guitar skills invoked the former while his
vocals recalled the latter.' -
Mackenzie Lambert, Buffalo Rising (Ingrid Michaelson concert review) 'His
(opening set) presented the audience with a mosaic of influences that
conjure up a likable & sometimes funky sound. His work vaguely resembles
that of John Mayer's earlier soft pop rock albums.' -
Allison Eck, Buffalo News (Three Dog Night concert review)
'His strongest, most finely detailed and compelling collection to date.'
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Jeff Miers, Buffalo News
'Daring and
delicately understated.' -
Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice
'What's impressive
about your work is your unwillingness to settle for the obvious. More
challenging than simply crafting a pop tune, but when you put the
elements together properly the sky's the limit.' -
Taxi.com - - - DISCOGRAPHY: 'Back With The Dreamers' (forthcoming) / 'Little Vision' (2017) / 'Nice Mouth' (2013) / 'All Star Heart' (2010) / 'Red' (2005) / 'Things I Used to Know' (2003) / 'The Contortionists Get Sweet For You' (2001) - with The Contortionists / 'Down The Long Lonely' (1997) / 'Pop Revolution' (1997) - with Plaster Sandals / 'Two Steps Left of Hip' (1993) - with Plaster Sandals
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