Tall tales

Masters of reinvention struggle to match their own ambitions.

- GRAHAM REID

It's almost 20 years since Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) released his breakthrough country-folk album For Emma, Forever Ago, a collection of personal songs born of three months' isolation in a snowbound Wisconsin cabin, where he considered his broken life in his mid-20s.

Since then, the landscape of alt-folk, country-folk and other Americana offshoots have changed considerably. New strands emerged (Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Nadia Reid, Joanna Newsom), old veins were tapped again (Bill Callahan, Vashti Bunyan, the late Bill Fay) and some dark determination emerged (Ireland's Lankum).

Vernon changed too, moving further from indie-folk than many expected. His 2011 self-titled album was musically ambitious and more alt-pop-orientated; 22, A Million (2016) brought in electronica and aggressively assertive beats, and i, i (2019) was different again with heavyweight guests (The National's Aaron Dessner, Moses Sumney, James Blake).

Like Neil Young in the 1980s, Vernon was challenging himself and his audience, shedding folk purists along the way.