Justin Vernon - Official Hero

I know I've written a lot of flowery praise for Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, his contributions to the Dark Was The Night compilation, and his recent Blood Bank EP. Justin Vernon, Bon Iver's front man, has a unique voice and is one of the better songwriters out there, but this story pretty much makes him my hero.

Vernon grew up in Eau Claire, WI, a smallish city of 61,000 people in western Wisconsin. While attending Eau Claire Memorial High School, Vernon was a member of the school's acclaimed jazz band. Knowing how much that experience helped shape him as a musician, he decided to give a little something back. On Sunday night, Vernon performed with the current jazz band at a concert to help raise money for their trip to a jazz competition in NY (apparently, a competition that Vernon also attended while he was in school). The jazz ensemble + Vernon played some jazz standards, but what really blows me away is that Vernon took the time to write arrangements of his songs so that they could perform them together. While talking about the experience, Vernon sounds generally impressed by the students:

"It's been pretty much like performing with the kids I was with 10 years ago. Only the faces have changed. In 1999 we had a really special band, but this band is jaw-dropping."

Just unbelievably cool and amazing on so many levels.

Read the article and, more importantly, see the videos (!) at Stereogum, and see the original article/review of the performance from the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. Their performance of "For Emma, Forever Ago" is below.