The Red and Black

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: COURTESY BON IVER Bon Iver, a.k.a. Justin Vernon, takes his name from the French "Bon Hiver," meaning "good winter." [Click to enlarge]

Recent movements of contemporary, soulful folk rock have proven to popular music listeners that sometimes staying out of the spotlight is the key to success. The formula worked for the likes of Iron & Wine's Sam Beam and Ray LaMontagne, and the next singer-songwriter to latch onto this understated legacy is Wisconsin's Bon Iver (a.k.a. Justin Vernon).

After Vernon's former musical projects dissolved, he found recluse in a snowy upstate Wisconsin cabin. The groundwork for his album "For Emma, Forever Ago" came alive over one "bon hiver," French for a "good winter." Vernon dropped the season's silent H, as well as all excessive production value, resulting in a soul-bearing collection of folk music that focuses less on farm animals, but another species: the self.

The simple yet exceedingly striking songs are heart-wrenching and wrought with haunting ghostly coos overtop contemplative lyrics that seriously stir up the emotional ties of the snowy season. Bearing a voice only comparable to the fringy falsetto found in TV on the Radio, Bon Iver brings out songs that scream out for attention in all of their subtleties, most notably in single "Skinny Love" and the cut called "Re: Stacks," possessing the potential to make even the manliest men weep.

- Sami Promisloff

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