Julianna Riolino will be over in Europe twice this year

Julianna Riolino’s All Blue feels wonderfully out of time: The Toronto alt-country musician’s solo debut sounds like Dolly Parton hanging out in Laurel Canyon in 1972—or perhaps 2032. Like Parton, Riolino layers and harmonizes her voice, the most fine, tuned instrument on All Blue, until it sounds as big as your feelings for a long-lost love. Both are performers who play the sentimentalist smiling through the sadness, the most fitting form of melancholy for country music. But Riolino’s flavor of country is more cosmic; like fellow troubadours Tobacco City and Daniel Romano, Riolino is a member of his band the Outfit, she also invokes a starry-eyed ’60s folk sensibility without appearing overtly nostalgic. You’ve heard these sounds before, but their familiarity is a strength, even when All Blue plays it a little safe.

Riolino made the wise decision to record most of All Blue live. Producer Aaron Goldstein, a gifted pedal-steel player who has been associated with Cowboy Junkies and Espaniola., understands that these 11 songs are best heard while swaying in place; the playing is as compelling as the songwriting.
This is a testament to the performance of Riolino and her bandmates, especially Thomas Hammerton on keyboards and Anthony Ronaldi doing a few light Exile on Main St.-era Bobby Keys impressions on baritone saxophone.

All Blue is at its best when it leans into this more rockin’ flavor of honky tonk, as on “Lone Ranger”, or in the T. Rex stomp and wails on “Why Do I Miss You.” At the other end of the spectrum, Riolino adopts an Aimee Mann-like delivery on “Hark!,” singing about a celestial dream as if it was just some passing sign on the highway.
When the album lags, it’s usually from an aggressive case of sameness or overreliance on an unchanging midtempo gait. This can plague even the best of the alt-country elite.

With All Blue, Julianna Riolino will come tour Europe twice. First in August/September as main support for Daniel Romano's Outfit and later in November/December for a headline tour:
26/08: Nijmegen, NL - Doornroosje ^
27/08: Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg ^
29/08: Goteborg, SWE - Pustervik ^
30/08: Malmö, SWE - Folk Å Rock ^
01/09: Kristiansand, NO - Kick Scene ^
02/09: Stavanger, NO - Folken ^
03/09: Bergen, NO - Landmark ^
04/09: Oslo, NO - Rockefeller ^
05/09: Trondheim, NO - Byscennen ^
06/09: Östersund, SWE - Studio Stage ^
07/09: Stockholm, SWE - Koppartalten ^
08/09: Copenhagen, DK - Alice ^
11/09: Eindhoven, NL - Americana Mondays
12/09: Gent, BE - Vooruit ^
13/09: Groningen, NL - Vera ^
14/09: Paris, FR - NoPi ^
15/09: Bristol, UK - The Louisianna ^
16/09: London, UK - Omeara ^

28/11: Norderstedt, DE - Music Star
29/11: Kirstiansand, NO - Vaktbua
30/11: Oslo, NO - Last Train
01/12: Stockholm, SWE - Twang
02/12: Goteborg, SWE - Viva Sounds
03/12: Malmo, SWE - Folk A Rock
05/12: Essen-Werden, DE - JuBB
06/12: London, UK - Paper Dress Vintage
07/12: Coventry, UK - The Tin Music & Arts
08/12: Nottingham, UK - The Old Cold Store
09/12: Newcastle, UK - The Globe
10/12: Brighton, UK - Komedia Studio
11/12: Brussels, BE - Indies Keeping Secrets

^ support for Daniel Romano's Outfit