Zac Galen profile picture

Zac Galen

I'm kinda like the Mr. Butch of Elm St...

About Me

A student of jazz, Zac blends its language with the inflection of soul music, the immediacy of folk music, and the vernacular-purpose of rap music. Having shared the stage with artists as diverse as KRS-One, Roomful of Blues, Steve Lacy, RJD2 and the Benevento/Russo Duo, Zac has felt most at home performing, thriving on the relationship with audiences around the world and utilizing the connection between fellow musicians within bands like Peoples Republic of Monsters, Old Man Benjamin, The Lorax, The Plurals, Men Without Class, The Mumbles, and many more. As a solo performer he has captivated thousands with personal tales of love, melancholy, and affirmation, including deeply retrospective interpretation of past masters and heroes such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, and Nick Drake. The live show incorporates elements of folk, jazz, blues, funk, hip-hop, and many other genres to combine for a performance which is at once genuine and also full of surprises. Accomplished singer, guitarist, song-writer, improviser... Zac Galen emerges as a force to be reckoned with on the contemporary music scene and will be making meaningful expression for years to come... "From Queens to Philly; The Woo town to Berlin they all shoutin for him to do it again - Zac Galen is Eric Krasno meets Ben Harper... add Steve Mossberg on the organ and some boom-bap from yours truly and you've got a high powered trio of soulful cookin... have gigs, will travel...".... Thus spoke drummer Ethan Shorter, peep son on the traps...

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 7/29/2005
Band Website: zacgalen.com
Band Members: me myself and I
Influences: wyclef jean... that's about it these days
Sounds Like: john legend trapped in the body of nick drake who'd really like to be eric krasno? Zac has been compared to the intimate soul-folk of Ben Harper and the raunchy hip-hop/blues of G Love and Special Sauce, but there's something else going on here........ The critics weigh in; here's what Carl J. Tietze had to say for Pulse Magazine in Worcester: "Listening to Galen perform, it is easy to hear American music icon Stevie Wonders influence on songwriting, arrangement, and vocal tone. Galens voice is as soulful and deep as it is pure, and his ability to hit upper registers with ease makes it very obvious that this young man has a voice and knows how to use it. His vocal talent, coupled with his abilities as a first rate guitar player, puts this young man a cut, or two, above the rest."........ and there's no press like German Press, take Carsten Purfürst in Kiel: "Zac Galen, Amerikaner und Wahlberliner, stärkt sich derweil mit einem letzten Schluck aus der grünen Buddel, dann entlässt er seinen angejazzten Soul in die Nacht. Nicht nur stimmlich, auch optisch erinnert er ein wenig an den Kollegen Everlast, seine Songs haben jene typisch flockig-folkrockigen Anklänge, wobei auch der Blues mal wieder seine Rolle spielt. Zac Galen tanzelt mit traumwandlerischer Finesse übers Griffbrett, schmunzelt Richtung Tresen, wo May und Cremer (die andere Band des Abends) ihm zuprosten, versinkt in seinen Melodien. Der gebürtige Bostoner, den man in den Staaten schon "A Rising Star" getauft hatte und der nun sein Studium der Jazzgitarre in Berlin fortsetzt, bleibt bescheiden. Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell und Radiohead zugleich stehen seinen Songs Pate. Eine fast abstrus zu nennende Mischung, die jedoch hervorragend zu harmonieren versteht. Ein schönes Konzert."............. and H.P. Daniels for the Tagesspiegel in Berlin: "In knittrigem Hemd und mit bunter Kappe steht er aufrecht da, mit der Akustikgitarre, und bewegt den massiven Körper zu massiven Songs. Lässiges Fingerstyle-Picking, harter Anschlag, rhythmisches Saitenknallen. Jazzig, latino-funkelig. Und singt sehr cool und schön, mit einer Stimme irgendwo zwischen Jack Johnson und James Taylor. Zwischen Sonne und Melancholie."......... WHAT DO YOU THINK????
Record Label: Acoustic Crunk
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

"DAYS LATER, STILL DECEMBER"

"DAYS LATER, STILL DECEMBER" The certain smell of Queens A stupe on New Town Waiting on a Robin BirdNo money, a few loosies--That's of course where the change wentI have been across the Brooklyn Bridg...
Posted by Zac Galen on Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:25:00 PST

2007 in rewind: the belly of the beast, the 617, realness, "Done With It" the EP, shoutouts

pound my peeps, biggin up your selves? recappin years, and it goes... a little something... like this... NEW YORK CITY: this year I reclaimed my new yorker heritage, gettin closer each day to buying ...
Posted by Zac Galen on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:40:00 PST

my first month and the city that's ILL

» greetings good folks, this is about time for me to write about rights and wrongs in the city that's illadelph, Philadelphia, brotherly love and all that, that movie, a certain cheese that's spreada...
Posted by Zac Galen on Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:15:00 PST

i think you should all be my valentines

hello hallo hola holla!!!   how are you? I really mean that.   aight, listen up, I gots lot to say and to tell you all, I shall tell you all like Lazarus via T.S.   here's the news: 1...
Posted by Zac Galen on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 01:53:00 PST