Jobi Riccio

A singer/songwriter with a poetic sensibility and a fearlessly honest outlook, Jobi Riccio makes music that reflects her love of classic country, contemporary folk music, and the great singer/songwriters of the past and present. Riccio sounded like a honky tonk angel on her debut EP, 2019's Strawberry Wine, but as she developed a more mature and insightful lyrical perspective, her music took on a more eclectic, personal tone. Her first full-length album, 2023's Whiplash, was a bolder, more personal work that added an indie edge to Americana melodies. Jobi Riccio grew up in Morrison, Colorado, a town 20 miles from Denver that's home to one of America's most famous music venues, the Red Rocks Amphitheater. She loved country and roots music growing up and began writing songs in her teens. After completing high school, she headed East to attend Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music. In 2018, she was a finalist in the 2018 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriters Showcase, and in 2019 she was the recipient of Berklee's Lee Villiare Scholarship, as well winning in the NewSong Music Competition that same year. In the wake of this success, Riccio recorded and self-released a three-song EP, Strawberry Wine, that was steeped in the influences of the great country singers she loved while growing up. In 2020, she left Boston to return to Colorado, and landed a gig at that year's Sundance Film Festival. As her songwriting took a more personal and revealing direction, she booked time at producer Gar Ragland's recording studio in Asheville, North Carolina, where he encouraged her to dig deeper into the influences of her favorite artists, including Joni Mitchell, Phoebe Bridgers, and Bonny Light Horseman. After a few days of recording, with the arrangements enhanced by additional players who contributed their parts remotely, Riccio completed her first album, 2023's Whiplash. The title was a metaphor for the dramatic changes she went through as a young woman, and included the song "Sweet," which she described as "the self-love anthem I wish I’d had growing up as a young queer kid who listened religiously to Top 40 country radio." Whiplash was issued by Yep Roc Records in September 2023; earlier that year, she received the John Prine Songwriter Fellowship Award and made her first appearance at the Newport Folk Festival.
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