Nashville-based musician Jobi Riccio has announced her debut album Whiplash, due out September 8, 2023 on Yep Roc Records. The 11-song collection effortlessly melds classic folk and country sounds with indie, atmospheric production as Riccio searches for a place to call home against the backdrop of embracing her own identity and coming of age. The 24-year-old songwriter grapples directly with a variety of topics on the record, including coming to terms with being queer and facing past wounds, as she bares her truest self with raw candor, brutal honesty, and an infectious sense of humor. “When I was writing these songs, I kept coming back to this image of someone slamming on the breaks in a car crash and this idea of emotional whiplash,” Riccio explains. “That rush of stress and adrenaline felt similar to what I was experiencing as I emotionally processed my adolescence—almost as if I was being jerked around by one big life change after another.” 

Written over the course of several formative and tumultuous years in Riccio’s late teens and early twenties, Whiplash is a profoundly vulnerable work delivered by an artist navigating the complicated transition into adulthood with remarkable grace and maturity. With the announcement, Riccio has unveiled the title track “Whiplash,” which she calls the “thesis” for the forthcoming album. “I think most people’s late teens and early 20’s are a really difficult, confusing, and isolating time,” she explains. “ ‘Whiplash,’ the song and album, is a reflection on that.” 

Listen to title track “Whiplash” and pre-order / pre-save Jobi Riccio’s first full-length album and debut release for Yep Roc Records (due out September 8) here: https://ffm.to/jobiricciowhiplash

*LPs feature limited edition coke bottle clear vinyl*

Born and raised near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, a stone’s throw from Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Riccio grew up surrounded by music and fell in love with country and roots music at an early age. Her album draws on her earliest influences like Sheryl Crow on the shimmering self love-anthem “Sweet,” while also pulling inspiration from the tender, confessional indie-folk of artists like Adrianne Lenker and Hayley Henderickx on tracks “Kinder to Myself” and “Lonely Tonight.” Sonically, the collection marries the country and folk based craftsmanship of Riccio’s songwriting with modern indie-leaning production to forge a lush, expansive sound that feels traditional and experimental all at once. From the bittersweet album opener “Summer” to the jazz-infused album closer “One Last Time,” each song is a revelatory, coming-of-age story about change, healing, growth, and self-love. Whiplash was co-produced by Gar Ragland, Jesse Timm, Isaiah Beard (of Baerd), and Riccio at Ragland’s Citizen Studios in Asheville, North Carolina. 

The album announcement comes in the midst of a whirlwind few months for Riccio that have included signing to Yep Roc Records (Aoife O’Donovan, Tift Merritt, Nick Lowe), earning praise from the New York Times and Nashville Scene, releasing single “Green Flash” featuring Erin Rae, and taking noteworthy stages across the country from AmericanaFest to Baby’s First Rodeo’s Queer Country Night and The Bluebird Cafe. Riccio has announced a string of shows throughout the Spring / Summer, including dates with Blue Cactus and special Pride Month celebrations.