good winter

I recently found a new album on iTunes that has really made me think. Usually it's the music that touches me, makes me take a step backward and take another look, but this time it's even better. Not only is each song bluntly emotional, to the point of being harsh (which is a nice diversion from other indie music...no offense, indie bands. I still love you), but the whole idea behind the band and the album is just plain awesome.

Justin Vernon, the guy who started the band, grew up in Wisconsin in a small town. He had a girlfriend in high school who supposedly he never got over (her middle name is Emma, hence the album name For Emma, Forever Ago), went through some bad times that no one will talk about in the years following high school, and basically split town unannounced one fall. This young, angsty kid up and dropped out of life, pretty much. He went to this old, tiny hunting cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere in Northern Wisconsin and stayed there for months on end, throughout the whole winter (the band, Bon Iver, is French for "good winter"). It was a pretty Holdenesque move, an admirable one, I think. So after being sick of life for so long and moving into this teeny cabin in the middle of nowhere, he finally emerged in the spring with his psyche intact, his heart healed (or at least reconciled), and a head full of song lyrics. Thus was born For Emma, Forever Ago.

I realize I find this so fascinating because I can really easily relate to it right now and I'm also pretty jealous of this huge self-discovery, but nonetheless, isn't that pretty awesome?