Julianne, Soulchild

I knew Julianne back when she was still Julie Anne (two words) — or Julie, or Jules — the eldest child of Philip Tarroja and his wife Rica. Her parents are among my best friends in the world, and they were responsible for bringing me here to Davao City back in 1990 — but that’s another story for another blog post. Suffice it to say that I was part of the Tarroja family for many years, and I saw Julianne as a child and had always known that she would grow up with music as an important part of her life. After all, her father is an accomplished musician himself and her mother also has a golden voice.

Unlike many other young female singers, Julianne writes her own songs and plays guitar for herself — and quite skillfully at that. She had always shown an interest in the guitar: back in the day it was a normal for me to pick up Kuya Philip’s guitars (a Yamaha and a Tama at the time) at their home and strum away, and Julianne, like any normal child, would come up and interrupt me by strumming or banging at the strings.

Julianne and me during her family's recent visit to Davao City.

I never actually saw her play guitar because by the time she picked up the instrument at around age nine I was already living in Davao. But it didn’t surprise me that years later she would become a singer/songwriter and become a rising star in the music industry; not only is it in her genes, she also has the determination and the willingness to work hard to achieve her dreams.

For some years I was a distant observer to Julianne’s rise to success, unable to watch any actual show because she performed mainly in Metro Manila and occasionally abroad. I had to make do with Youtube and what TV performances I could catch, as well as listen to her debut CD (Grateful) over and over again. In July last year, however, she visited Davao and played a small gig and I finally saw her live. This was repeated early this week when she and her brothers Christopher and Immanuel jammed at a small gathering of family and friends in downtown Davao.

I was blown away by her voice and guitar-playing chops. There were broken chords, split chords, inversions, and variations flying all around, but all tastefully done to support Julianne’s wonderful, deep, mellow, bell-like voice. Her hands and her voice worked magically together, weaving song after song into a fabric rich not just in poetry but in meaning.

But it wasn’t at all pensive and serious. Julianne had a way of presenting even mature issues in a lighthearted way both lyrically and musically. Her persona was exactly that of a Soul Child (the nickname the industry gave her): full of soul, but still a child at heart, the kind that Jesus said we all ought to be (Matthew 18:15). On stage, Julianne moved and grooved to her music, losing herself in her songs and inviting all of us to be lost in them as well.

Julianne will be releasing an EP (extended play) disc soon, and there are plans afoot to record a full-length album as follow up to her successful “Grateful” debut. There’s a lot more going on than I can write here, so head on down to her website for more of Julianne. Let me just leave you with this video of one of her most popular songs, Grateful:

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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