WARREN Galbincea shakes up Elvis fans

The Mecca resident will perform Saturday night.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Elvis lives.
Well actually, Elvis lives in singer-impersonator Dan Galbincea, who for more than a decade has been "All Shook Up" performing the King of Rock 'n' Roll's hits for audiences all over the nation.
"It happened because I used to sing karaoke in some bars and no matter what I sang, everybody said it sounded like Elvis," said Galbincea.
"So, I played a festival at Mosquito Lake [State Park] in 1994 and did a show at 3 p.m. for about 300 people. They asked me if I would do it again at 9 p.m., and there were like 1,500 people and two weeks later I went to Memphis, got into a competition and came in fourth in the world."
Talk about going to bed in the real world and waking up in a "Love Me Tender" surreal universe, Galbincea's life hasn't been the same since. The 52-year-old Mecca resident performs roughly 100 private party karaoke shows a year, as well as a handful of theater shows, which feature a full backing band.
Holiday concert
It's the latter outfit that will be performing Saturdayat the W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren in Danny G's Memories of Elvis Holiday Concert. Fans can expect to hear all of The King's hits, as well as various holiday-themed songs from Presley's catalog. Plus, Galbincea performs material from other artists -- such as Garth Brooks and Conway Twitty -- as if interpreted by Presley.
When he's not wearing the leisure suit and Elvis glasses, Galbincea is hard at work running his own Warren-based fishing lure company, which produces the popular Erie Dearie line. The popular lure was invented by Dan's father. Still, the singer is always thinking about his next gig.
"It's a very cool side job and the thing about it is, I put my heart and soul into it and it's not a mockery of Elvis," said Galbincea.
"It's a tribute to Elvis. It's my voice, obviously, and a mix of my own style in with Elvis but anybody that sees the show says this is about as close as you're going to get. And I hate to say that, because it sounds arrogant on my behalf, but we do put on a class act."
Galbincea understands that in our pop culture, Elvis Presley, and especially Elvis impersonators, has become somewhat of a punch line.
"It's something that takes some getting used to but if I were just to come out and walk around in the outfit, people would giggle," Galbincea said. "But when I start to sing, they kind of sit back and take notice."
Elvis fans can expect to sit back and take notice of his entire Vegas-era presentation, right down to the swiveling hips. "Yeah," Galbincea said, "I pretty much get worn out."
XDanny G's Memories of Elvis Holiday Concert will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday at W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren. For tickets, call (330) 841-2931.