04-05-19 | Songs for Listening | Justin Vernon
Closing out a week of picks from Megafaun members and close associates, musician and producer Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) selects tunes for Friday, April 5 at Songs for Listening. Childhood friends Justin, Joe Westerlund, Brad and Phil Cook moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina with their band DeYarmond Edison — when that group split Justin dived full into his project Bon Iver, while Joe, Brad, and Phil formed Megafaun. Bon Iver became a GRAMMY-winning cultural phenomenon and Megafaun evolved into a wonderful and rollicking ramble.
Even with the formation of these two separate enterprises Justin, Brad, Phil, and Joe remain close and have continued making music together regularly — here are a few instances that stick with me: In 2010, Justin joined up with Megafaun, Fight the Big Bull and Sharon Van Etten to make a concert presentation of Sounds of the South, based on tunes from Alan Lomax's field recording collection of the same name; in 2011, Justin and Phil performed Bonnie Raitt's 'I Can't Make You Love Me' on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; in 2014, Justin joined Megafaun on their farewell tour, playing in the band and singing on Johnny Cash's 'Unchained' ... the list goes on, and the friendship and music-making persists.
'BTSU' by Jai Paul from 'BTSU'
'Old Dollar Mamie' by Benny Will Richardson with Unidentified Prisoners, recorded by Alan Lomax from 'Negro Prison Songs from the Mississippi State Penitentiary'
’I Won't Crumble With You If You Fall' by Bernice Johnson Reagon from 'Give Your Hands to Struggle'
'Couldn't Love You More' by John Martyn from 'One World'
'Friendship' by Pops Staples from 'Don't Lose This'
'White Foxes' by Susanne Sundfør from 'The Silicon Veil'
'I Know It's You' by Donny Hathaway from 'Extension of a Man'
