Corey Balsamo is an 18-year-old singer/songwriter from Long Island, NY. He picked up his first guitar around the age of ten. Influenced by John Mayer, Ryan Cabrera and Dave Mathews, he quickly turned his natural talents of singing, playing and lyricism to composition and performance. By the age of 15, Balsamo frequented the local music scene around both Long Island counties, Suffolk and Nassau, as well as venues stretching into New York City and New Jersey. Fast forward two years: Corey has already weaved his way through the New York music scene, fronting his first two bands and then moving on to play guitar for All County Fair (currently "Of Oceans"). It was 2007. Balsamo frequented several weekly local open mic performances at venues such as Cool Beanz Cafe in Saint James, NY. Here, Corey found a true group of friends who quickly became family. Nearly all were many years his senior, yet all were supportive, loving and family all the same. Corey soon began to perform at a nearby venue named "Acoustic Long Island". Housing performances in a 16th Century styled mansion, Acoustic Long Island consisted of a weekly lineup of free performances by local musicians. The performances were recorded and then put onto an iTunes podcast. With over 10,000 weekly listeners from all over the world, Acoustic Long Island grew and quickly became the biggest and most popular acoustic podcast on iTunes. Before the age of 17, Corey made about a dozen worldwide appearances on the ALI open mic podcast, always receiving positive feedback. Then, an infant songwriter and many times the butt of jokes pertaining to his age, he began to make appearances and open for some popular local artists. It was not long before he headlined his own shows, which often times consisted of a line up of artists he had once opened for now supporting his headline. Balsamo headed into the recording studio in March 2008. On June 13th, 2008, Corey released his first indie EP, "Stand Still". The track list contains five rare, intimate acoustic recordings, now in hard-to-find stock. A summer passed, and then a fall. Corey's popularity and fan base grew. He was also growing as a songwriter. In late 2008, Balsamo returned to the studio in plans to make his second EP. This time, plans had changed. This was going to be his first full band EP. Yet, Corey had no band. Teaming up with producer and friend, Michael Curley, he began to lay down the scratch tracks for the new EP at a 2 A.M. recording session in late December 2008. The EP was tracked in two different studios, starting in Purchase, New York, then Smithtown, New York. "September" was finished and released via hardcopy on March 20th, 2009 during a series of hometown Long Island, NY shows. "September" was released May 26th, 2009 and is available worldwide on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and Napster.Corey loves and appreciates anything and everything that anyone has ever done in support of his musical goals and endeavors. If you have read this or even listened to a song, thank you. With a strong and growing supportive fan base, there is no stopping Corey in what he will accomplish next as a singer/songwriter. "To be a singer-songwriter - it's like a perfect storm. So many things have to come together. You've got to have a freakin' good voice. You have to be able to write tunes - decent tunes. You have to be able to get up on stage and perform them, and then you've gotta be able to play something. It's rare that those four things turn out something great but you get somebody like Corey Balsamo, and it all comes together in a perfect storm." -- Dave Dircks, Acoustic Long Island
