For Emma, Forever Ago

Justin Vernon was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and grew up pursuing music. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UW–Eau Claire), where he played in a number of bands. He and Jensen broke up in the middle of his college years, but would remain friends. DeYarmond Edison became his next musical project, as he graduated from college and relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina, in August 2005. Over the course of his time in Raleigh, he became frustrated with his songwriting as well as his personal life. He worked at a local sandwich shop that he felt took too much time from him. His depression was fueled by indifference, and he decided to get away from Raleigh and return to his hometown. He first stopped at his parents' home while they were out. He sat on their couch and felt "claustrophobic" and "super-empty." He returned to the road, in search of silence and hoping to be alone. ==Recording and production==

, Wisconsin. Vernon drove to his father's hunting cabin, roughly an hour's drive northwest of his hometown. In an interview, he described it as "a little Alpine style, timber-frame cabin." At one point, he faced a wild bear that entered the cabin late one night, enticed by his stew. Vernon completed tasks for him, such as stripping wood, clearing brush, and stacking lumber. He did not intend to stay for long, viewing the excursion as "an opportunity to escape the trap of society, to not pay bills, to play music and live really cheaply." Instead, he stayed for three months in the harsh Wisconsin winter. Shortly before exiting Raleigh, he had developed song ideas but ceased working on them in his depression. "I would work for 14 hours a day and start to feel a little insane," he later commented. The work was "labor-intensive," as he often merged eight or more tracks of vocals on each song. To help repair his 1964 Sears Silvertone guitar, he traded venison in the nearby town. By February, with winter drawing to a close, Vernon emerged from the cabin with nine songs. He left still feeling physically sick from the infection, and did not feel "renewed" from his creative catharsis. Vernon never viewed it that way: "It's sort of odd to look back and see it as magical, because it felt like a lonely few months at the cabin, where I plugged in the laptop and fucked around." Vernon later viewed the album as a victory for his mental health, a metaphor for taking "personal steps" to improve his life. He went more in-depth in a later remark: "Emma isn't a person. Emma is a place that you get stuck in. Emma's a pain that you can't erase." ==Composition and music==

For Emma, Forever Ago is a summation of Vernon's life events at the time, ranging from "lost love and longing" to mediocrity. He considered this method a "back-door way," as they fit more to his unintelligible syllables than words. While "Skinny Love" has been considered a reference to his relationship with Smith, "re: Stacks", meanwhile, concerns a period of problem gambling Vernon underwent. ==Release==

After completing the recordings, Vernon returned to North Carolina to play guitar on tour with The Rosebuds, who toured through that spring. and gradually became an independent hit throughout that year. My Old Kentucky Blog was the first to popularize the record. A release party was held at the House of Rock in Eau Claire on July 8, 2007, marking the album's CD debut. and he began to see offers to release the album from record labels. and its Midwest roots. 4AD would distribute the album in Europe. ==Critical reception==

For Emma, Forever Ago received widespread acclaim from critics. It scored an 88 on review aggregate site Metacritic, based on 27 critics. The New York Times called the record "irresistible." On the other hand, Robert Christgau, in his review for MSN Music, stated that the album ultimately had little to say about "shared aloneness", comparing Vernon unfavorably to Robert Creeley and writing that Vernon's "solitary meditations ... lose definition faster than an angel's breath on a January morn". Accolades ==Commercial performance==

Upon its February 2008 release, For Emma, Forever Ago sold 4,000 copies in its debut week. That placed it on several US album sales charts, including at number 182 on the Billboard 200 and a number five entry on the Top Heatseekers chart. Sales for For Emma were "slow-building," according to music publication Billboard, but eventually became a "commercial smash" for Jagjaguwar. The album eventually peaked at number 64 on the Billboard 200 in the issue dated January 24, 2009. Prior to its official release on Jagjaguwar, the album was widely available online. The label offered sales incentives in response, including a free poster with pre-ordered copies, a bonus track on the iTunes Store edition, as well as purchasing a copy required for in-store performances. "If you'd told me when we put out For Emma, Forever Ago that we would sell almost 100,000 copies on vinyl, I would think that was just absolutely insane," said Nick Blandford, managing director of the Secretly Label Group. Its overall sales were last estimated at 335,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, in June 2011, but the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2013 for shipments of 500,000 copies, and later, platinum in 2017 for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of 1,000,000 units. ==Touring==

in September 2009. Vernon first toured as Bon Iver along the East Coast, supporting Elvis Perkins, in late 2007. One of the biggest concerts came in December 2007, when the band performed at the Bowery Ballroom. He held one memorable show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery at six in the morning. The album's main touring cycle was complete by late 2009. ==Track listing==

Original release iTunes release ==Personnel==

Information in this section is adapted from the album's liner notes, with additional info from taken from Tidal. Bon Iver • Justin Vernon – vocals, guitar, production, songwriting Additional musicians • John Dehaven – trumpet • Randy Pingrey – trombone • Christy Smith – drums, vocals Production • Justin Vernon — recording • Nick Petersen – mastering Design • Brian Moen – art direction • Daniel Murphy – layout • Griszka Niewiadomski – photography • Gilbert Vernon – photography • Deb Sorge – hand lettering ==Charts==