FAO Paul, Albie, Tubby, Seeb, Sam, Gully, Dave etc plus anyone else who's interested in the burgeoning progression of an immensely talented new artist.
ROSEANN FINO
REVIEW OF GIG AT CALEDONIA, LIVERPOOL – May 15th 2016
Big things occasionally arrive in small packages. And so it came to pass on Sunday evening at the very ordinary yet very wonderful cask fortified Caledonia ale house on Catherine Street in Georgian Liverpool that a pocket dynamo from New York State unleashed a whirlwind virtuoso musical performance on an unsuspecting Caledonia clientele.
Featuring principally a selection of her own golden nuggets and transfusing them with some killer covers RoseAnn Fino, alone with guitar, was quite simply sensational.
Of course, I already knew what to expect having been steeping myself in her music ever since her proud dad e-mailed me some six months or so ago asking me to give a listen to his daughter’s
‘Out from Under’ mini album. Fact is, ever since I’ve felt very little inclination to listen to anything other than Roseann’s steadily burgeoning repertoire of fabulous songs.
However, nobody else in The Caledonia last night – save perhaps for my own Roseann-beleaguered family members and friends – had any real idea what was about to smack them right between the eyes.
Namely unique, raw talent of the very highest musical level; a talent that bore witness to a pub’s hubbub gradually petering out in awe as each song unfurled its majesty.
From the opening rush of her latest single
‘Touch Me’ in which, by informing us what it’s like to
‘live under a bridge and have a garbage truck disturb your beauty sleep each morning’, she begins her saucy tale of how to wield a stick of female bravado to prod male machismo, we set out together on an hour long magic carpet ride of musical heaven.
As the lecherous excitement of
‘Touch Me’ still resonates it is quickly calmed by the beautiful mood contrasting aching laments of
‘The Night Rolls In’ delivered with the sort of heartfelt yearning the song demands. Then, still enraptured by
‘Night Rolls In’s stark beauty, we are treated to a rendition of Springsteen’s
‘Atlantic City’ that would have Bruce asking himself
‘why don’t I still do it like that?’. Well tough shit, Brucie lad – you may have penned the thing and The Band may have embellished it with those heavenly strains of mandolin but a little miss dynamo now owns the fecking thing!
Okay, so we’re 20 minutes or so into this and if I knew what to expect why then at this juncture did my eyes become increasingly moistened as the strains of the ensuing song couplet filled the air?
Explaining the emotional impact of the first of the couplet –
‘Boxed Wine’ – was straightforward enough. RoseAnne introduced it by outlining its particular Fino paternal connotations and, whilst thanking me for procuring her the night’s gig at The Caledonia, kindly linked me – a like-minded doting father - in with her own dad. So far so good. Emotions most certainly stirred. But not yet shaken.
That steadfastness wasn’t to last - as the second stage of the couplet was not so quite easily dealt with.
I’ve been privileged enough to have RoseAnn’s dad send me the MP3’s of the recorded tracks for RoseAnn’s forthcoming four track EP entitled
‘The Airing of Grievances’. The single from it -
‘Touch Me’ - is already out there as many will know and I think any discerning music fans can detect the ongoing musical progression that particular song reveals. It is, however, the remaining three tracks
‘Airing of Grievances’ itself,
‘The Drinking Song’ and
‘Californian Debutante’ - and particularly the latter two – which provide an inkling into just how accomplished a creative artist Robert Fino’s daughter has now become.
Yet even that insight and a daily exposure to the majesty of these recordings wasn’t enough to prepare me for what came next at The Caledonia, for as the strains of
‘The Drinking Song’ soared across the room, this particular delivery of the song announced itself as an entirely different proposition.
Without the dramatic piano, drum and cello accompaniment that define the recorded version you’d think the singer’s hard guitar strum however stridently and earnestly delivered would struggle to suffice. The opposite was the case. The song’s inherent drama if anything heightened. The haunting despair of RoseAnn’s vocals accentuated. They now spoke within a hitherto lively pub as if in some eerie empty church, its captive congregation hanging on each sentiment conveying the singer’s resigned nightly bar-room ritual, were suddenly jolted by the song’s outburst of defiance and desperate resolve –
‘But I’ll wake up and you’ll see a different side of me and I won’t need these drinks to make myself feel free. I won’t hate the person staring back at me. I’ll make you so proud. It’ll be easy. I’ll make you all so proud. It’ll be easy.’ Let’s not demean the rest of the show by over-egging – were that at all possible - the majesty of this particular night’s
‘Drinking Song’. Especially when more Fino gems were to follow, delivered with that same professional aplomb and electric vibrancy. Amongst them were those two other magnificent new recordings
‘Airing of Grievances’ and
‘Californian Debutante’. They were interspersed with a lovingly delivered take of The Band’s
‘Ophelia’ before a vociferously implored encore of The Face’s
‘Ooh La La’, heartily roared by all, rounded the night off.
Lots of hugging and stuff followed before we all bade our farewells to RoseAnn and Tony, her most charming boyfriend. A superb convivial night was over. It will, of course, be remembered for our meeting RoseAnn and Tony and for the pocket dynamo’s all round stunning performance, for five minutes or so of which she had somehow managed the impossible trick of transforming a pub into a place of awestruck reverence.
