Bio

(download press photos here)

Daring independent pop songwriter Rob Falgiano explores light and shade with intimate, playful, blunt lyrics about the human experience – with joy, wonder, hope, anger, sarcasm, despair and love. Deep and shallow mingle, because that’s what most people are, not all one or the other. His music is mostly politely controversial, somehow somewhere between James Taylor and Jello Biafra.

With a love of classic pop structure and fascination with the mysteries of sound, Rob unconsciously blends genres, incorporating jazz chord voicings with pop melody, rock, bossa nova, R&B low end, early country folk (then called “hillbilly!”), abundant syncopation and other cryptic influences, plus ambient electronics and synth bass sounds from 1980s border-town independent Canadian and American college radio and the British alternative pop he loved growing up in Buffalo, NY, USA, which is home. There was a time before the corporatocracy that is surely retrievable.

Stream 6+ hours of Rob’s songs on shuffle here.

In the comfortable sanctuary of a recording studio, every sound must feel true to join the whole. It’s a rule, even when leading to weeds and the unknown. Art as self-discovery while trying to entertain, stimulate, and hopefully, inspire.

Some songs are about love, lust, and silly fun. Others are about the creator and the beauty of the natural world, or deep space, from which we likely come – and to which we likely return. Some songs are somehow metaphysical, physical, and spiritual simultaneously, like Prince and Ray, who also dared and took arrows, until they were dead and no longer threatening to the local and national gatekeepers.

These icons had more raw talent, but Rob is competitive on songwriting. (He also wrote half of a song with Prince in a dream he remembered clearly enough upon waking – melody and lyrics – for possible future discussion, and definitely for inclusion on the next record.)

Rob loves intangibles: mood, atmosphere, and Does This Make Me Feel? Ideally a song displaces you in its mystique, though sometimes play beats everything. Some songs are surface obvious, others kaleidoscopic.

Falgiano’s 10th full-length recording is Back With The Dreamers. He’s released three EPs from 2023 to 2025, and written two related books on metaphysics and the possible nature of a creator/god, including Life is Magic (2023).

Rob’s 11th record, on schedule for 2026, is called “Everything is Only the Beginning” or possibly “Earthquakes and Falling Stars.”

Falgiano is also an independent, non-corporate concert promoter in Buffalo, booking major and lesser-known artists in his hometown for more than 25 years, including: Mark Knopfler, Diana Krall, Bonnie Raitt, The Jacksons (Jackson 5), Gregory Porter, Brian Wilson, Burton Cummings (The Guess Who), Ray Davies, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Pixies, Jeff Beck, Nikki Glaser, David Byrne, Samantha Fish, Sufjan Stevens, Robin Thicke, Brian Culbertson, Anderson Rabin & Wakeman, Chris Cornell (two remarkable solo tours), Kool & The Gang, Joe Cocker, The Head and the Heart, Joe Jackson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Martha Ambrosius, John Hiatt, Leo Kottke, Monsieur Perine, Boney James, Petros Klampanis, Esperanza Spalding, Levon Helm, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Robert Glasper Experiment, Sarah Brightman, Dweezil Zappa, Buddy Guy, Feist, KD Lang, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, David Sedaris, Ray Charles (final tour!), Gregory Hines, Chick Corea, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Mythbusters, Lily Tomlin, Blues Traveler, Bright Eyes, Herbie Hancock, Tears for Fears, Straight No Chaser, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Jimmie Vaughan, Ian Anderson, Steve Vai, “Rain,” John Legend, Ne-Yo, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, “Experience Hendrix,” Ace Frehley, Trombone Shorty, Beth Hart, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The Decemberists, Indigo Girls, Lucinda Williams, Will Downing, Pat Metheny Group, Randy Hauser, Alton Brown, Lewis Black, among hundreds of other events, at venues throughout Buffalo.

Musically, Rob has worked with studio producer / engineer Mike Rorick since 2009. Rorick is a sonic genius who helps get artists’ songs to the finish line. They collaborate in a fluid way, in favor of the best, most interesting result, as only art which comes from honesty resonates. For the new record, talented mixing/mastering engineer Rich Ells has also created mixes at GCR Studios. The goal is a broad 20-song effort touching on almost every style with which Falgiano has experimented, plus new tricks.

Rob’s songs have been used on some TV shows, though without great acclaim: ‘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: John Hiatt, Jakob Dylan, Nickel Creek, Ingrid Michaelson, Three Dog Night, Matthew Good, Goo Goo Dolls, The Pursuit of Happiness, Ron Hawkins, Deep Blue Something, Nellie McKay, and Chris Trapper, also Buffalo-born.

Rob has played more than 1500 shows in the northeast US & Southern Ontario, Canada in the last 30+ years, performing for tens of thousands.

– – –

DISCOGRAPHY:  ‘Super Sexy Xmas EP’ (2025) | Burning Sun EP’ (2024) | ‘In It EP’ (2023) with Plaster Sandals | ‘Back With The Dreamers’ (2020) |  ‘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 | forthcoming: ‘Earthquakes and Falling Stars’ (2026)