Jacob Goins is a folk songwriter, performer, and producer from the far west of North Carolina.
His writing is born of woods, of the emergence and recession of light, and of the silence in which he lingers. He strives to make art that doesn’t sing over the quiet, but sings along with it.
A native of Western North Carolina, Jacob was born in Brevard and grew up in Brasstown, among a large family of musicians. Though his style draws from traditional Appalachian music, his influences are broad, spanning English Folk, Piedmont Blues, Classical, and Jazz. These are combined with his subtle guitar playing and vocal style that are an intuitive response to the lush and mountainous land that he comes from.
Jacob’s 2024 crowdfunded album, a spring may well up, was written during the pandemic, when he experienced an artistic drought that he had never felt before. Through that season he had nothing to do but write music about not being able to write. Alongside those songs of wrestling came instrumental pieces about simple things, calling him again outside of himself: a song for his home community, a song for his best friend’s baby, lifelong familiar creeks… At the end of this season, he had a group of beloved, but very particular, songs he thought were only for him. Songs of his own healing.
Soon after these songs were penned, Jacob and his wife Lauren went on a long trip across the country playing shows, as they have done for the last few years. To Jacob’s surprise, in sharing those new songs they found that musicians and poets aren’t the only ones who lose their song sometimes. This knowledge formed his motivation to record the album alongside Lauren, whose intricate piano playing and vocals can be heard throughout.
Billy Praise Adesola of the indie music blog Still Small Voice aptly calls it “an album of moments.” In a spring may well up Jacob is trying to create moments of shared experience with his listeners, and to offer encouragement to anyone who knows what it feels like to lose their song.
