Bjorn Jacobsen has, in his words, “called too many places home” since he was born in Danbury Connecticut in 1991. However, the location this young man does feel most at home is behind his guitar, which he first picked up at the age of 10. He has been playing, singing, and writing songs ever since.

While in high school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Bjorn survived a dangerous fall, and found himself in the hospital fighting a resulting rampant MRSA infection. The medical team proposed amputating his hands to save his life, to which the teenager responded, “I’m a guitar player. I’d rather die.” With extremities still healing, Bjorn commenced his professional musical career at the age of 18. That was when he also began recording and releasing numerous offerings with his producer, Nick Orr, from New Jersey, including both Bjorn’s solo work, as well as compositions by their electronica duo, The Gentry.

Robin Chambers was a Southern California child of the ’60s who first tucked that fiddle under her chin when she moved to Utah in the third grade, and was swept into school orchestras and classical training. She then made a career of her more improvisational stylings in Pennsylvania at the age of 18, performing and recording with many bands, most notably the acoustic trios Gypsy Bleu, Modern Icons, and Lavacave, with whom she served as songwriter, vocalist, and violinist.

Bjorn and Robin met at a songwriter showcase in Lancaster in 2013, and the instant chemistry had them gigging together within the week, for Bjorn’s 22nd birthday. That first year, they performed in an expanding and contracting band, The Wayfarer Experiment, at festivals and venues including Ram’s Head Live at Baltimore Inner Harbor, World Cafe Live, both in Philadelphia and at The Queen in Wilmington, as well as Tellus 360 and Chameleon, back on their home turf, in Lancaster. Bjorn eventually moved to New Orleans, and then to North Carolina, but they continued their shows together when he toured through the area. Upon his return in the fall of 2017, the two solidified their duo, Bjorn Jacobsen with Robin Chambers, and continue as such, now that Bjorn has made Johnstown his home.

This pair’s music predominantly features Bjorn Jacobsen’s original songs, which reflect his time in The South and The Big Easy, tinged with Middle Eastern and Klezmer influences. Together, Bjorn and Robin form an acoustic power duo, weaving raw, passionate licks on guitar and violin, with Bjorn’s Tom Waits meets Jim Morrison-tinged voice gushing forth both bluegrassy and soulful songs of sin and love and pain.