Biography of Albin J. Zak III, author of I Don’t Sound Like Nobody:
Albin Zak is a musicologist, songwriter, and record producer. He holds degrees in
composition and performance from the New England Conservatory and a Ph.D. in
musicology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His research
specialties are twentieth-century American popular music and the history of sound
recording.
Zak is the author of The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (University of
California Press), and editor of The Velvet Underground Companion: Four Decades of
Commentary (Schirmer). His essays and reviews have appeared in the Journal of the
American Musicological Society, American Music, Current Musicology, and Notes, as
well as several essay collections. His recordings include In the Hurricane, Across the
Brazos, By the Side of the Road, An Average Day and Waywardness and Inspiration
(Insatiable Records).
He teaches music history, songwriting, and record production at the University at Albany,
State University of New York.