JACOB AUGUSTINE - I Love You Forever

Some stories flee from ordinary pain, however harrowing it may be, and aspire to eternity. Or at least to the infinity a song reaches for when it's written and sung with all the soul in the world.
That Jacob Augustine is a talent is clear from the very first notes of "Medulla Burning Down", a deep gospel hymn, sung with the suffering of someone who's been through practically everything there is.
Jacob now lives in Philadelphia, but he's roamed far and wide, constantly searching for a place in the universe, for a key to unlock a room that had stayed shut, deliberately so, for far too long.

After spending years in Maine, this singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and the seasoned pitch of a preacher remained artistically adrift, caught in an imprecise trajectory, before eventually being overwhelmed by the drama of events that unfolded one after another within his family. "Lincoln was a paper-mill town, very conservative. Fights were an everyday occurrence, and the yellow, sulfurous dust from the paper mill settled on the windshields of the cars. All we wanted was to get out of Lincoln and play music", recounts Jacob, about his move to California, which fell apart within a short time due to scant interest in his harmless first metal band.
Back home, the American musician began writing songs upon songs, caught up in an unstoppable flow, all while caring for his grandmother Christine, who had Alzheimer's, and above all for his mother, who was fighting cancer. "She was diagnosed the day after she retired. My mother lost every cent she'd earned over a lifetime of work, because she got sick. There could have been a Boeing full of people who adored her", the singer-songwriter reveals.

A double trauma that would lead him to move to Philadelphia, working as a driver for a ride-sharing service, playing in local venues, and, as he himself puts it, "living the American scam". All of this before a "voice", a sort of postmodern holy spirit, echoed in his head, urging him to do what he does best. "That's when I made the decision to become a wandering, nomadic musician. The voice said: 'You're a songwriter, you're a musician, that's the only reason you're still breathing. So what the hell are you doing? You're spitting in God's face by not doing what you were put on this earth to do'". And he goes on: "I decided to leave the country to busk around Europe and live in hostels. It was the best choice I ever made. Simple. Wake up, go somewhere with my guitar, sing for three hours, head back, eat something, maybe have a drink with some new friends, sleep in a warm bed, and start all over again. Everything in my life has gotten better since I stopped living a lie and conforming to the norm. I just wish I'd done it sooner."

It's out of this long story that the eight songs on "I Love You Forever" take shape. Starting with the aforementioned "Medulla Burning Down", with which Augustine recounts the loss of compassion. "My mother was very Catholic. But the kind of Catholic who'd let her kids have a death metal band in the basement. She was definitely a shining light for me and for many others", Jacob notes on the subject. It's no coincidence that the album cover also immortalizes his mother as a young woman, radiant and sunny. A tribute that gives way to other themes tackled by this singer-songwriter, full of spirituality on the road, as in the sliding door moment that animates the country ballad gait of "The General's Son", or the wandering lyricism of a lost soul who's just found the light at the heart of "Animal Orchard", another gem on an LP that's still semi-hidden, as evocative in its sky-turned singing as it is melancholic in the acoustic phrasing that supports the words. Jacob seems, in fact, to have just stepped out of a deconsecrated church in the belly of the United States, having defeated the demons, ghosts and blacksmiths of the American dream.

Jacob Augustine's solemn singing is an impenetrable shield. And it remains so even when it's time to lower one's guard and sing the magic of a place, as in the eight minutes of "Philadelphia Lights", another dedication to his mother that lifts the singer-songwriter's spirit off the ground and carries it somewhere into the Pennsylvania sky.
On the closing "Midnight Drum", Jacob finally sheds the wounded preacher's robes and dons those of a street singer amazed by life, with the festive strings of Peter Broderick matching his mood. God bless him.

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13/10/2026