A diva and a rocker walk into a bar...
Rio The Messenger and Alexander Yearns, yin and yang and a release show
She’s a one-named diva who exudes soul and spirituality. He’s an up-and-coming singer-songwriter from Palisades Park with a stylistic debt to Dylan and Devendra Banhart. Rio The Messenger and Alexander Yearns may represent the yin and yang of their local music scene, but they’ll each celebrate the release of excellent new albums at a show together at Union City’s Green Space Studios on February 1.
Rio The Messenger burst on the scene in 2021 with a single and EP, but the artist behind the name has been a familiar face in the Hoboken music scene for years as Emily Turonis, daughter of beloved Hoboken performer Gene D. Plumber. “Heart Vision,” Rio the Messenger’s first full-length album, will be released on Friday, January 31.
For Rio the Messenger, the transition has meant much more than simply adapting a stage name. “I went through a process of dying and being reborn,” she explained. “So much of what we think of as our personality is really just our habits. Well I changed my job, I moved cities, I left a relationship, and I got sober all in a very short time span. And at first, I really felt I had died, because I cut loose so many of the things that I leaned on as my identity markers. Then slowly I started to feel that a new version of me was being born.”
The music of Rio the Messenger traffics in light jazz and soul, but the lyrics make these more than just pop songs. There’s an undercurrent of spirituality that runs through the entire album.
“I started giving more importance to my inner world, and that’s when I started to actually live as an artist,” Rio said. “Because to be an artist is not about the output, it’s about how you live. I started to let my music be the most important thing in my life. I learned to play piano and then guitar. Before I only ever co-wrote songs with other musicians, because I couldn’t play any instruments. Now I was free to write on my own and I started performing solo. The entire direction of my life changed once I started listening to the inner compass.”
“Speaking to my new name, I had never liked the name I was given at birth, Emily, and at a certain point in this process, I just didn’t feel like Emily at all,” Rio continued. “Rio was a name that my former partner and I had talked about for a child as we were thinking of adopting. So when that relationship ended, instead of giving that name to a child, I gave it to myself, to represent my rebirth.”
The album has been beautifully produced, with orchestral arrangements that include lovely fillips of flute and percussion as well as layered guitars and synthesizers accentuating Rio’s soulful vocals. The album has a dreamy, ethereal quality, a gossamer lightness expressed in light jazz with percolating rhythms.
“Heart Vision” will be released and streaming on January 31. For more information, visit riothemessenger.com.
ALEXANDER YEARNS GOES LIVE
As the title suggests, Alexander Yearns’ “Live In Jersey City” presents the talented singer-songwriter impeccably recorded and mixed by sound engineer Joey Caride. The sound quality is first-rate, as is the set, which showcases Yearns’ original style that mixes groove-laden fluidity with Dylanesque ballads.
Like Rio the Messenger, Yearns is a stage name. Alexander Del Giudice debuted with the emo-esque name Alexander Yearns in 2019. On “Live In Jersey City,” recorded several years ago at a space known as The Loft in downtown Jersey City, he and his band - Aren Flower on lead guitar, Andy Dash on bass, and Liam Kerekes on drums - flex impressive jam-band chops and a knack for sturdy, sure-handed Americana. The arrangements remain clean and spare but robust, tightly focused but often conjuring up a raw, honky-tonk swagger, especially on a bluesy cover of Elvis’ “Heartbreak Hotel.”
“I’ve always wanted to release a rock album — no fluff, nothing lush or jazzed up — just dry to the bone, something to speak for itself, something to blast while you drive down the highway,” Yearns shared. “I attempted a record like this one for years in studio settings but could never come close to the rawness I was seeking. One full year after the recording, via email, the album of my dreams fell into my lap.” The album is available on all streaming platforms as of Friday, January 17.
Rio The Messenger and Alexander Yearns will perform at Green Space Studios (543 40th Street, Union City) on Saturday, February 1. The 7:30 p.m. event will include performances by Sacred Lotus and Empress J’La Roc. Suggested admission is $10.