Dare to stand out/ Mariëlla Tirotto & the Blues Federation 04-09-2011
By Ruud Monde (www.ruudmonde.com and www.rootstime.be).

Like so many other musicians, also with Mariëlla Tirotto, the apple never falls far from the tree; her father played in the local brass band en her mother sang all day long. Therefore it was predestinated that Mariëlla would go to the academy of music to develop her skills on the violin, but as so often with rebellious adolescents, she refused at the last moment and that was the end of her career as a violin player.
Her interest in music luckily remained and she never stopped singing, which she had been doing in several choirs, but just for herself.
Not until she was 23 she went public with that, when her husband Heins Greten happened to hear her sing and asked her to join the rock band “Anonymous”. After having played in several bands the first recordings took place with the band “Italian Smoke Party”, on which there were clearly some jazz-influences. In 2000 Mariëlla cut the knot and chose to make a career as a musician. As a result she recorded the album “Stranger”. It never came to a second solo album, because there were plans for a new band, finally leading to Mariëlla Tirotto & the Blues Federation. In 2008 they released their début CD “Somewhere down the road” and now the successor “Dare to stand out” is released.
I must confess this new album was my first introduction to the music of this band. Actually I just knew the band by the many activities of Mariëlla on the internet, where I heard some fragments every now and then that certainly didn’t sound bad.

De CD consists of 12 numbers of which no less than 11 are written by the several band members! The CD starts heavy with beautiful guitar work by Harald Koll which continues in the middle part of the number. With fine support by drums and percussion blues harp player Michel de Kok can show his excellent skills. With this first song “Drifting” the tone seems to be set for this CD, heavy and bluesy, because also in the next song “Marked for life” we can hear this style, but with the exciting sounding “Lover’s dance” the tempo slows down substantially and places the band in the swamps of Louisiana. The vocals by Mariëlla are very beautiful in this number. As far as I’m concerned the first highlight on this CD.
“Dare to stand out” picks up the style of the first two songs, heavy guitar, sharp blues harp, and again very fine drums and percussion by John Kakiay and Onny Tuhumena. With a nice up tempo sounding blues “Night owl” the band continues, after that we hear the only cover on this CD “Black Coffee”. The most beautiful version ever of this song is played by the Pointer Sisters which is to be found on their marvelous double album “Live at the opera house”. But this version of Mariëlla and her men is also most rewarding; beautiful subdued piano playing by Mariëlla’s husband Heins Greten and a leading role for Michel de Kok on blues harp.
Mariëlla’s beautiful jazzy sound makes this song also to one of the highlights of this CD.
Anyway, we have just come halfway the CD and there are still some very good songs to come, like for instance “You don’t call the shots”, also a beautiful number. A great, repeating bass  line by Heins lays the foundation for this beautiful song.
After that, haunting drums lay the foundation for “Why are you running from yourself?”. Again the beautiful solo guitar by Harald and the intense vocals by Mariëlla make this song a treat for the ear. The band’s versatility obviously knows no boundaries, because also a poppy ballad like “Lover”, a declaration of love, straight from the heart, is played effortless.
“Didn’t your mama tell you?” was apparently written during a less happy period in Mariëlla’s life, because it’s not exactly cheerful. The CD ends with the numbers “Embrace I” and “Embrace II”. Because of the rhythm as well as the guitar work it sounds like an ode to the work of Carlos Santana, the blues harp seems a bit strange here.

With “dare to stand out” the band clearly is not to be pigeon-holed. They are extremely versatile, when it comes to the name, maybe the “Blues Federation” is a bit misleading. But for the true music lover this CD with all top musicians is certainly worth buying!