Music

Americana's newcomer Jobi Riccio faces the pressure on her new record

XPN | By Raina Douris,

Published March 9, 2026 at 10:56 PM MDT

The country and bluegrass songwriter talks about her sophomore album, Face the Feeling, out May 15.

For the past year, every time I've talked to someone deeply plugged into the Americana scene, one name has kept coming up: Jobi Riccio.

The young songwriter from Colorado is a rising star, earning the John Prine Songwriter Fellowship in 2023. Today, you'll hear what all the buzz is about as Riccio performs songs — including an unreleased one — from her upcoming album, Face the Feeling, out May 15.

It's her sophomore record. In addition to showcasing her bluegrass and country chops, it also draws on other influences, including indie rock.

Coming up, we talk about her Colorado roots, her songwriting process and how she says the impact of winning the John Prine fellowship has grown even more over time.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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Raina Douris

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She was also involved with Canada's highest music honors: hosting the Polaris Music Prize Gala from 2017 to 2019, as well as serving on the jury for both that award and the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.

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Kimberly Junod

World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).

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