"Skinny Love"
WHO? Justin Vernon, a Wisconsin native with a broken heart and bushy beard. He self-released Bon Iver’s debut album,
For Emma,
Forever Ago, last year before he signed on with independent, Jagjaguwar.
PLAYERS: Justin Vernon, vocals; Mike Noyce; guitar; Sean Care, drums
WHAT TO BUY: Having broken up with both his longtime girlfriend and band (DeYarmond Edison) back in North Carolina, Vernon locked himself in his father’s hunting cabin in Wisconsin over one winter and emerged only after he had recorded Bon Iver’s stunning debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago. Mixing Appalachian folk and eerie gospel influences with the singer’s haunting high-pitched voice, slowly strummed acoustic guitars and the sound of the cabin’s surrounding wildlife, songs like “Skinny Love” and “The Wolves (Act I and II)” are suck-the-air-out-of-your-lungs beautiful.
GEEZ, HE SOUNDS LIKE A MISERABLE LUMBERJACK Not really. Apparently, the self-imposed spell of creative solitude effectively exhumed Vernon’s demons. On-stage with his two-piece backing band he’s a gregarious frontman, as eager to lead his audiences in singalongs as he is to crack a few jokes. The record, too, is not the desolate work you might expect. Layered with harmonies and overdubbed with horns, it has an unnervingly celebratory feel to it that makes Vernon’s maudlin take on heartbreak all the more unique.
SO WHAT WAS THIS EMMA LIKE ANYWAY? We may never know. Unlike his fellow guitar slinging sad-sacks, Vernon avoids the specifics in his songs but just goes for the end result in mighty poetic detail: “
Solace my game, solace my game/ It stars you/ Swing wide your crane, swing wide your crane/ And run me through.” The title track, “For Emma,” is as close as we get to learning about this woman that thoroughly wrecked Vernon’s emotional core. “
I toured the light; so many foreign roads for Emma, forever ago.” Maybe not.
DID HE GET CABIN FEVER IN, ER, THE CABIN? Not so much. Vernon has said, “The cabin’s like a little alpine-style, timber-frame cabin, used to just have a dirt floor, but the last few years my dad’s made it ... maybe too nice. Like there’s plumbing in it now. But there’s still that ancient vibe, because you’re so far away from everything.”
FILE NEXT TO: Fleet Foxes,
Sun Kil Moon, Iron & Wine
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: Bon Jovi, Bon Scott, Simon Le Bon
CRITICAL ENDORSEMENT: “The music evokes the acoustic side of Nick Cave or Neil Young, with his voice ranging from a creepy falsetto (sometimes double-tracked for hallucinatory effect) to a moan. Yet For Emma, Forever Ago never turns into a pity party, because Vernon has a light touch, with zero interest in narrative or confessional lyrics." –
Rolling StoneWHERE TO SEE HIM:Aug 29 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
Aug 30 - Seattle, WA – Neumo’s
Dec 10 - New York, NY - Town Hall
Dec 11 - New York, NY - Town Hall
WHERE TO FIND HIM: www.myspace.com/boniver