In 2006, Justin Vernon was sick and depressed. He’d moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to pursue music, but following breakups with his girlfriend and band and battling health issues, he returned home to Wisconsin.
In a remote cabin outside Eau Claire, Vernon searched for discovery and endured the harsh winter and when he emerged, he had recorded a consequential album that would change his life. Though his indie folk group Bon Iver began as a man alone, it’s now a larger ensemble of regulars and touring musicians.
It’s hard now to imagine Vernon stumbling in obscurity. He’s released beloved and Grammy-winning albums, and his high-profile collaborations include Taylor Swift, The National, St. Vincent, Kanye West, and Zach Bryan.
If you’re new to Bon Iver, begin with the beginning—the haunting For Emma, Forever Ago. You don’t get to Swift’s pastoral Folklore without “Skinny Love” or “Re: Stacks.” Soon, the leaves will turn, and Bon Iver’s earthy collaborations might be the perfect mix for the dropping temperatures.
Pour a little salt, we were never here.
“Boys of Faith” by Zach Bryan from Boys of Faith (2023)
In 2016, Zach Bryan posted a clip of him covering Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” The song appears on For Emma, Forever Ago, and Bryan’s 2023 EP echoes the warmth and hiss of Bon Iver’s rustic debut. Vernon recorded that album in isolation, hunkered down in his father’s hunting cabin in Wisconsin. On “Boys of Faith,” Vernon sounds beamed in from another dimension, long ago. Bryan’s voice is low and clear. It’s a nostalgic ode to old friends and old times. Bryan mentions photos taken in Kentucky making their way onto a billboard in New York, referencing the improbability of his overwhelming success. Sometimes, doing nothing in a nowhere town feels meaningless until you realize it means everything.
High tide, it’s been rising up
I’ve been getting up with some boys I used to know
We’re trying to get our pockets up
This year has just been moving f—ing slow
“Weird Goodbyes” by The National from Laugh Track (2023)
Singer Matt Berninger explained “Weird Goodbyes” as “letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts.” Everything becomes an obstacle course of heavy grief. The radio is too painful to listen to. The rain pelts his windshield, implying a hazy metaphor where the driver can’t see where he’s going or why he’s leaving. Vernon’s voice rises above Berninger’s low register like a conscience. A collage of past things—growth marks on door frames and handprints in concrete—fade to distant memories. “Weird Goodbyes” merges two cinematic artists.
Move forward now, there’s nothing to do
Can’t turn around, I can’t follow you
Your coat’s in my car, I guess you forgot
It’s crazy the things we let go
“Exile” by Taylor Swift from Folklore (2020)
Folklore is Taylor Swift’s cabin-in-the-woods album, and no one does cabin-in-the-woods better than Justin Vernon. On “Exile,” Vernon spots his ex with a new lover. He can’t stand how quickly she’s moved on. With a fatalistic baritone, Vernon sings through the Swiftian R&B hook against a defeated and lonesome piano. Swift sees their relationship differently. She doesn’t buy the wounded animal bit, and she, too, has seen this film before. The track grows to emotionally overlapping voices while the crescendo of a pulsing synthesizer enters the swelling mix. The rhythm is rigid, like how two lovers behave in a breakup.
I think I’ve seen this film before
And I didn’t like the ending
You’re not my homeland anymore
So what am I defending now?
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