MELISSALAND

I’ve fallen in love. Of course, this happens countless times throughout the day - I will call them my little loves. You stumble upon something, a person, a photograph, a word - and your heart stops, however briefly - pauses long enough to fill itself for the remaining hours of the day - and these things keep you going.  Then you string these presents together, you fall sound asleep and during the night they dance freely - your collective shimmering lives.

And so I stumbled upon Bon Iver (which, is pronounced ‘bohn eevair‘ - French for ‘good winter’)

His bio explains:

it wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate.

Justin Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. Tailing from the swirling breakup of his long time band, he escaped to the property and surrounded himself with simple work, quiet, and space. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This special time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus…

…this slowly evolved into days filled with 12 hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the last six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.

What a romantic idea….to be held up in a cabin in the woods for the winter with only a thick pad of paper to scribble all those wonderful thoughts onto. I dream of doing stuff like this. One day I will.

Justin Vernon will be playing December 10 & 11 at Town Hall in NYC. If you want to learn more about Justin or purchase his latest album, For Emma - click here: www.boniver.org