Skinny Love.

I became a Bon Iver fan during the summer of 2010. I have Will Kocher to thank for that. “For Emma, Forever,” recorded with unsurpassed levels of courage and honesty, spoke for itself. Simple. The resonating copper strings on the steel acoustic guitar. The wailing falsetto. The gentle, strung out harmonies. Bon Iver created an unrivaled masterpiece during those long nights in Wisconsin, where the album was recorded. I’m not writing this post about Bon Iver’s musical innovation. Plenty of people can write about that. I’m interested in the nature of “covers” and whether or not they can speak truth through the original masterpiece on which they are based.

“Skinny Love,” for example, has recently gone viral through a 14 year old UK singer/pianist called Birdy. Her single of Bon Iver’s staple track has reached as high as 21 on the UK singles charts. On Youtube, a music video appeared on April 1, and has already reach over 432,000 views. The non-official video released in February of 2011 has over 1,000,000 views. Is Birdy’s success merited? Can she be called a “musician” when her only true single is a cover of one part of Bon Iver’s masterful album? I love her cover. It tingles my spine and sends bumps down my legs. But is it real? Is it genuine? It's hard to say. Certainly Birdy’s version required a great deal less courage and honesty than it took for Justin Vernon to travel to his father’s cabin in Wisconsin and record a deeply inspired album. He did it all by himself. I can’t wait to see Birdy do the same…