Cole Gallagher

Twenty-one-year-old Cole Gallagher is a true rock ‘n’ roll storyteller. His stirring and imaginative songs, propelled by his richly expressive voice and framed within the sound of finely crafted Americana, come at you with a vivid sense of narrative, but one that’s cloaked in mystery. On his debut EP, The Confluence, the South Pasadena resident establishes himself as a multi-faceted artist whose songwriting reflects the greats who serve as his muse – Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon. “They were trying to make sense of the times they lived in, but when I heard them, I felt like they were speaking to me at that moment,” Gallagher says. Produced, engineered and mixed by multiple Grammy winner Vance Powell (whose credits include Phish, Chris Stapleton and Jack White, among others), The Confluence brims with youthful energy, lovingly detailed arrangements and exuberant musicianship on which Gallagher lets listeners in on feelings and observations, both stormy and sentimental. There are hard-learned lessons, songs of faith and dreams and the struggle for identity. Among the original songs, standouts include rugged, impressionistic anthem “Lines in the Sky” and the Tex-Mex/country gem “Chatting Through Steel” (which features Los Lobos singer David Hidalgo). With “Sugarland,” Gallagher lived out a fantasy by recording a never-before-released song by Bruce Springsteen.