BWW Review: Tina Scariano Hits a FEELS LIKE HOME Run at The Green Room 42

When Tina Scariano chose to name her debut solo show “Feels Like Home” it may have been because more than half of that show is made up of Linda Ronstadt songs, one of them being the song “Feels Like Home.” Maybe it was because Tina had taken an extended leave from performing and, in returning to the stage, was experiencing all of the emotions that come with a homestead return. Perhaps the title of the show is based on the sense of solidarity Ms. Scariano derives from the music of the strong, empowered female rockers from the seventies featured in her show. Who really knows, other than Tina Scariano, why her new act is called Feels Like Home? All that matters is that Tina Scariano is at home on the stage, and what is important is that she stays there because this strong, empowered woman of 2021 is wildly entertaining with her seemingly unrehearsed chit-chat, she is extremely unique of vocal gifts, and incredibly appealing in all aspects of her persona. In brief, Tina Scariano is simply wonderful.

One of her generation’s muti-hyphenates, Ms. Scariano makes her way in life as a podcaster, makeup artist, and actor, and with her quarantine-perfected guitar skills and a lifetime spent finding the voice that is truest to her, Tina has stepped into the light with a new artistic presence as a singer-songwriter, a profession befitting the women she honors in Feels Like Home. And like those women, Ms. Scariano has a voice that, once famous, will be one of the most recognizable voices to be heard on a radio station, be it one with call letters and a DJ, or a digital one from Spotify. During decades past, one could have the radio on and hear a new single by Carly, Carole, Stevie, Joni, or Linda and know, immediately, who was singing, so distinctive was each voice. From the first notes that rang into the Green Room 42 air on Sunday night, the audience was mesmerized by the Scariano sound, as Tina performed five Linda Ronstadt songs in a row, each with a different vibe and a different sound, and even though the unique timbre of the instrument was unchanged from tune to tune, Ms. Scariano’s ability to alter her delivery to meet the needs of “When Will I Be Loved” or “Desperado” and “Blue Bayou” was so specific that it became, rapidly, clear that, like Ronstadt, Scariano can sing any genre of music.

Like a heart that you are holding in your hands, the voice of Tina Scariano is constantly overrun with emotion, from the happy comfort of “You’ve Got A Friend” to the defiant force of “You’re No Good” – it doesn’t matter what story Scariano is telling, it all sounds fantastic in her glorious instrument, especially her more Dolly-than-Whitney informed “I Will Always Love You” and a “Both Sides Now” so personal sounding, so beautifully phrased as to give one cause to wonder what in Tina Scariano’s life has influenced so intimate and vulnerable a performance. Indeed, all of the musical numbers feel very personal to the singer – the mark of a talented performer – but it is clear how much this music and these women mean to Tina, so naturally, all of the show should have a personal aura about it, especially when Ms. Scariano is so comfortable with the audience. Early in the show, Tina exclaimed, “I see all my friends!” and it’s a safe place to be, on a stage, looking into the faces of loved ones – the only thing is that Tina looked at everyone while sharing all of her endearing rhetoric with us, but when singing, her tendency was to gaze into that lovely dreamland floating just a few feet above the heads of the audience. These are some classic lyrics expressing some real-life topics, they should be shared human to human, not just singer to listener.

Tina’s chat with the crowd ran the course from interesting and amusing factoids to personal confessions and always delivered with an air of utmost sincerity, though Ms. Scariano’s best non-musical moments are spent sharing the stories from her own life, the moments when she talks about the “why” that drives her passion for the music and the rockers, and there is room for more of that in the show because what affects Tina in real life will affect her audience. It might also behoove Tina to consider spacing out all the Ronstadt throughout the set, rather than gather the compositions into one half of the show, just as she might consider seeking out a BIPOC female rocker to add to the equation. The Seventies were a time of great change for women and for artists of color, and a fuller representation would benefit “Feels Like Home” because what Troubador Tina has created here is a concert program that is both enjoyable and commercially viable, thanks to a built-in audience that comes with the fans of strong woman rockers from any era, whether their names are Ronstadt, Nicks, Flack, Franklin, or Scariano.