Hi all, as you probably know, I don't do very many gigs of my original music with a full 'rock and roll stylin' band' (that's what the kids call it), so I get pretty excited when one is on the horizon.   Coming up is the third hoorah for this lineup of the Rob Falgiano Band (featuring Mike Criscione, Jonathan Hughes, Ray Hangen, Dee Adams) after our exciting 'debut' opening for Jakob Dylan at Thursday in the Square, and an appearance at The Taste of Buffalo this summer.   Someone in the band said it's ok for me to call it 'my band' since I pay them.   This is a good point.  I own my band now.  You can rent a slice for yourself by attending our exciting show this Friday.

"TWANG-N-ROLL '08"
featuring The Rob Falgiano Band (11:30pm-12:30am)
and Dee and The Housecats (10pm-11pm)
with Tina Marie Williams (1am-2am)
Fri. Sept. 12th @ 10pm
Nietzsche's - 248 Allen St, Buffalo, NY
$6 cover

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Got some more good news from my Music Publishers in LA.  A second song of mine (though I've not been told which yet) has been placed in the Season 3 DVD/itunes downloadable version of the TV show "Everwood."  I already have a song ("Burning Sun") in Season 1, which is available on DVD now.
An additional song (again, not sure which one) will also be used in an episode of the DVD version of the short-lived TV show "Jack and Bobby" (The WB).

And now, a few words on TV placements:
I was having 2 thoughts at the same time this morning when I woke up.  Imagine that. Actually it was kind of a continuation of a thought I started having while I was doing my laps at the pool yesterday.   As some of you may know I am a devout swimmer guy and last summer I bought a pair of waterproof underwater headphones to play music.  They totally rule and if ever the makers of the swimp3 want an endorsement, I'm all on board.   So anyway, I'm doing my laps and I think a song by the Smiths is playing and I'm thinking about how when I was 16 or 17 I would have thought it was totally uncool if the Smiths had licensed one of their songs for use in a TV commercial or some dumb product.   It would have smelled like a sellout.  And then I thought gee maybe I'm guilty of the very same thing for licensing out my tunes to TV shows.

But then on the flipside I can honestly say as an independent artist that I have never made music for any perceived audience other than myself.  I make music that I like and then I hope that other people will respond to it b/c it comes from an honest place.  So artistically I feel clean.   And if a TV show wants to play one of my songs and I don't have to alter the content then isn't that a good way of making some cash towards my future recordings?   Trust me, although I have sold a few thousand CDs over the years I am by no means getting rich off this.  It's still the labor of love it was when I started, but I may actually be worth listening to now     Most independent and mid-level artists are scraping the barrel to make what they're doing work.   The only ones who really get rich are at the top of the heap, and most of that stuff doesn't intrigue me too much.   So I'm not likely to emulate it.  I don't believe in fame.  I prefer heartfelt music.

For some reason when I woke up today I was feeling conflicted about the TV placements.  I don't plan to stop going after them, but at the same time, I don't think I would license a song to just any product.  Maybe it's better not to try to be 100% uncompromised.  Bob Dylan, at the height of his fame, got bugged out by the fact that people expected him to support every social cause of his generation simply b/c he wrote some great songs about injustice.  But he didn't want to get boxed in and I can't blame him.   In the 60s he said people would show up at his rural NY home and expect him to let them come in and hang out, or even just sit on his roof!   The local Sheriff even told him that if anybody ever got hurt at Dylan's place he'd arrest Dylan!   (This is all in Dylan's autobiography "Chronicles" - a great read.)  Dylan spent much of the 1970s simply 'deconstructing' his own image as a protest singer, probably to get people to leave him alone.  I gotta figure that's why he appeared (with his music playing) in that Victoria's Secret commercial a few years ago.  Cause otherwise that was just weird!   I might have set out to be some kind of outsider prophet when I was 18 and didn't know anything about anything (not like I know much more now) but with the benefit of years and plenty of ego crushings I'm more content to be a flawed guy who expresses strong feelings on things with the hope that I'll get some moolah for it too.

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It was a crankingly busy summer.  Sure, crankingly is a word.  Tons of gigs.  Things are starting to calm down a bit now and I'm good with that.   I need a little R&R.  Not too much, just enough to get excited about gigging again.  More studio sessions this month to work on my next disc.   Finishing up backing vocals, strings, and bass hopefully.  We are very close to the mixing stage. 

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Did you know I started taking vocal lessons a couple of months ago?   That's been really interesting, especially after singing for 20 years while knowing nothing.   It's coming along slowly - I'm starting to incorporate the breathing techniques into my performances and it gets a little more natural each time I try.   It's hard to undo 20 years of habits.  Back in April/May I had quite a scare - my voice was shot.  I thought I might have vocal damage, but a trip to the ENT doctor showed everything was good.   It was 'vocal misuse'.  So I went to a speech therapist who helped me a TON and then started taking voice lessons.  My voice is almost fully recovered.  I seem to have to do everything backwards.  But it works for me.

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And lastly, I've read 5 Kurt Vonnegut books this month.  "Slaughterhouse Five," "Cat's Cradle," "Man Without a Country," "Timequake," and "Sirens of Titan."   Vonnegut rules.  I wish someone had told me sooner.    That's why I'm telling you.

Thanks for your interest and support.