Julianna Riolino on the Art of Letting Go

The country-rock storyteller crafts her most self-possessed work yet with Echo in the Dust, a reflection on confidence, creation, and coming into her own.

By Leslie Ken Chu

Photos by Colin Medley

Published on October 20, 2025

Julianna Riolino has had a whirlwind few years since releasing her debut solo album, the starry-eyed country rock collection All Blue, in 2022. When RANGE reached her by Zoom at her home in Niagara, though, she’d just spent the day in her workshop building a stained glass window.

“I’m enjoying the calm before the storm a little bit,” Riolino says of the impending release of her sophomore album, Echo in the Dust, arriving October 24.

Where All Blue was a culmination of songs written between her teens and mid-20s, Echo in the Dust captures a more immediate snapshot. “A lot of the songs on Echo in the Dust were written on the road or in the small windows of time that I had off and had the bandwidth to pick up a guitar for enjoyment,” she explains. “Not that playing live isn’t enjoyable — I love playing live — it’s just a different thing.” These days, she adds, “I have a lot more time and space to create on my own terms, and that is really imperative to my personal growth — as an artist, as a human being.”

Echo in the Dust also marks the first release on Riolino’s own Moonwhistle Records — a natural next step for an artist who’s grown more confident and determined to stand on her own. Songwriting has always come easily to her, but she had to prioritize sharpening her recording skills.

“When it came to recording this time around, I was like, ‘I know what I’m gonna do,’” Riolino reflects. “Recording these songs really solidified this feeling that I’m meant to do this. I really, really enjoy being in a room with my band and figuring out the puzzle — painting these vivid pictures and hearing the arrangements come to life. I had so many moments while recording where I thought, ‘Wow, I’m really lucky that I’ve gotten to a place where I can enjoy this.’ It’s a really rewarding sense of growth.”

Riolino has always been simultaneously tough and vulnerable in her music. As ever, she writes with diaristic candor on Echo in the Dust, but this time she does so with greater compassion for who she used to be and how her past has forged her present-day self.

As Echo’s title suggests, no matter how much forward momentum a person has, the past always lingers just in the rearview. On “Smile,” she speaks to moving on without forgetting: “Picking up the pieces / Don’t throw them away,” she advises. On “On a Bluebird’s Wings,” she observes, “To grow is to be the fruit of our lowest lows.”

Her expanded self-awareness is matched by a broadened sound palette. “Let Me Dream” lives up to its name with moonlit serenity, while “I Wonder” leans into heavier rock and keyboard flourishes. Over its dusky drive, she confesses, “His longing has become my noose / I wonder why you feel the need to speak my name / I wonder why this game is played / A valid little pesky flicker.”

Riolino’s newfound confidence has also reshaped her approach to collaboration. “I just get out of my own way — and out of their way,” she says. “Musicians all have their own voice. What I love doing is giving people the space to be themselves without judgment and the freedom and confidence to put their talent on something and let it shine.”

One of Echo’s brightest highlights is “Full Moon,” featuring Weird Nightmare — the solo project of METZ singer-guitarist Alex Edkins. The song’s focus on incandescent textures marks a stylistic shift for Riolino, yet it fits her seamlessly.

Despite her earlier lament on “I Wonder,” Riolino has arrived at a freeing realization: “No one’s really thinking about you that much.” It might sound deflating, but her honest, critical self-reflection has always been the heartbeat of her music. Now that she’s gotten out of her own way — and everyone else’s — the dust has settled, and the horizon looks limitless.