Julianna Riolino at The Tin, The Coal Vaults, Coventry on 7/12/23

First things first we need to pay credit to Joe Colombi at Sink or Swim Promotions. It seems like he is fighting a solo battle to create a live music scene in the Coventry/Warwickshire area. It’s a virtual desert of good live music but Joe is doing his best to bring us some great acts. That brings us to the brilliant Julianna Riolino who this year released her excellent solo album “All Blue”. Julianna first came to our attention via Daniel Romano’s Outfits band and we have to admit we were surprised to see her playing in Coventry (quite a coup for Sink or Swim Promotions).

The first thing that struck us when Julianna hit the stage, with opening song “If I Knew Now”, was her huge voice.  She has a vocal style which is really emotive but not too overpowering and in a live environment it really shined on songs like “Hark”. We’re not really fans of country style music, but this is a bit different and there’s a more rocking undertone to her live. This means we are more than happy to see a bit of Nashville style brought to a cold Thursday night in Coventry. “Why Do I Miss You” is a hell of a song and seems to be written as a whisky and dancing tune.

Julianna proves to be an engaging front person and brings some warmth to a relatively quiet crowd.  She charms the audience with talk of safety pinned clothing and potential haunting of the venue. That before “Memory of Blue” slows things down, as the band ease off just a bit but it’s still a sound that fills the small venue. A highlight of the gig is “Isn’t It A Pity” a song that is a favourite of ours on the album and a beauty of a live song. Part country/part power pop, it is probably the main song that we could see really launching her if it was picked up by radio. Although, having said that, if “Archangel” was released by someone like Boy Genius (which it could be) then that would be all over BBC 6 music!

There’s a real diversity to her material and “Long Feeling” is one of the fullest sounding songs of the night. It actually has the style and sound of a Daniel Romano’s Outfits song and it’s delivered as a fully rocking version tonight (there is even some headbanging by Julianna thrown in!). It’s shortly followed by another of our favourites from her album, “You”. This is another one where there’s a bit of power pop thrown into the mix. Her song writing talent is really shown when she lets the crowd know that she wrote the brilliant “Lone Ranger” when she was 17.

She certainly gives the crowd value for money by also throwing in some older songs, such as “Pal”, and ends the set with the short sharp shot of “Be My Man”. That’s a surprisingly raucous song that owes as much to grungy garage rock as it does to any alternative/americana sound.

It left us being grateful that we’d got to see her in an intimate venue amongst a small crowd. If you were part of that crowd then you can count yourself lucky as we’re certainly expecting that next time she tours the UK, she’ll be drawing a much bigger audience. Indeed, if you live anywhere near Coventry and are a music fan but not supporting local gigs like this then you need to take a look at yourself. Maybe make 2024 the year you commit to supporting smaller artists and the local music scene. It’s better than supporting Amazon/Spotify and good for your soul as well.