Get in the Woods & Write a Masterpiece, Please

I am in search of the next 'For Emma, Forever Ago' or 'Nebraska' or 'Walden,' while no one seems to just lurk in the forest with their depression.

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The guard is officially changing in the pop world. Most of the world seems to accept that artists like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, or Lady Gaga are entering their elder stateswoman era as artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Billie Eilish become the current crop of mainstream popstars. As we welcome these stars into the fold, I can’t help but think there’s an opening for a specific type of popstar who really only comes around every 20 years: the white guy who records a devastating acoustic guitar album in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

This is not a sustainable model. These artists only make one album in that style, before being skyrocketed to a new level of success. Usually, they flesh out their sound much more, and by many metrics, they become stronger artists. Still, there’s a certain magic that can only be found by locking yourself in a room and writing.

Of course, the first person to do this was not a popstar. He could not play an electric guitar, and I assume that he also couldn’t play an acoustic guitar. Of course, I’m speaking of Henry David Thoreau. Walden is the archetypal white guys in the woods to write an album work. Unlike the other two albums that better define the form, no one is truly sure why Thoreau went into the woods, but his work will live on in American Literature survey classes for centuries to come. His essays cover various aspects of his life in the woods near Walden Pond. While solitude is a key theme, it’s difficult to say that it’s an inherently lonely piece, because Thoreau’s exile was self-imposed. Despite the fact that the other albums that capture this sense are explicitly downtrodden, our cultural relationship has led us to associate a wooded lonesome-ness with Walden. The same way that when you throw a party to catch one person’s attention, you’re channeling Jay Gatsby.

Of course, the most famous and probably most famous example of a guy writing and recording in the woods album is Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. This album’s creation is the Book of Genesis for a bunch of people who picked up acoustic guitars; therefore, I’ll keep this recap brief. Justin Vernon got kicked out of his band, and his girlfriend broke up with him. He went to go spend time with his parents, but he decided to go and spend the winter in his father’s hunting cabin. While he was there, he started writing and recording new songs, and that became For Emma. Wikipedia informs me that upon release Rolling Stone’s Josh Eells also compared the album to Walden (plus Into the Wild, The Basement Tapes, and Ted Kaczynski).

I didn’t begin listening to Bon Iver until my senior year of high school. I remember burning “The Wolves (Act I and II)” onto a CD that I’d listen to while I drove around after leaving my girlfriend’s house. By the time that I’d discovered the album, the self-titled sophomore album had come out, and I didn’t really explore that until I had finished college. I was a purist (and a jackass). What can I say? If it wasn’t one guy recording in cabin, it wasn’t Bon Iver. Strangely, I think I got into 22, A Million before I went back to Bon Iver, Bon Iver (though I probably go back to that album more now).

Despite the fact that the time that I listened to For Emma lined up with when I was in a relationship and probably more surrounded by friends than ever, the loneliness resonated. Sometimes the music can sense something wired incorrectly, and you’re most at home when you’re circling suburban backroads with acoustic songs. Though Vernon’s scope has expanded, I can’t help but think that the songs that have remained the most powerful to me (“Holocene”, “715 - CRSSKS”, and “Hey, Ma”) are the ones that feel like they’re continuations of the loneliness on For Emma.

This isn’t to say Bon Iver peaked with their debut. In fact, their growth and changes are aspects that other artists should take note on, because each album has felt fully formed and logical steps forward. Still, I don’t know if we would’ve gotten the other albums if Vernon didn’t hit that dark place, went to the woods and decided to write.

While there have been acoustic albums and singer-songwriter albums that owe a great debt to For Emma over the 18 years since it came out, I don’t think anyone else has recaptured the magic. I think that’s because I don’t know if anyone has fallen into whatever darkness Vernon fell into that led him to that cabin. I’m certain that other people have gone out to intentionally write their own For Emma, but I cannot think of any other artists who have followed this formula to success.

The only other artist that I can think of who did was Bruce Springsteen, 25 years before For Emma came out. Of course, I’m speaking about Nebraska. Oft regarded as Springsteen’s best album among fans (though Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run are more popular), Nebraska usually holds a special place in fans hearts, because no album really feels like it.

I’m not familiar enough with The Garden State’s geography to know, but Springsteen recorded the album in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. Most of the pictures that pop up on Google Images seem to suggest that there are a lot of trees, but there are also a lot of mansions. It’s not nearly as isolating seeming as I imagine the For Emma cabin was, but it does appear that Springsteen had access to nature in a meaningful way. In 2023, Springsteen revisited the home where he wrote and recorded the album, and it seemed like a respectable bungalow. He talked about enjoying the access to the reservoir. This is all a long way of justifying this as a man-in-the-woods album.

Just like For Emma, Nebraska is similarly mythologized. The Boss was in a deep depression, coming down off The River’s success. He rented the house in Colt’s Neck, and he started writing and demoing the songs that became Nebraska. He watched movies and read books, most notably Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. Those led to the inspiration for his destitute acoustic record. When he tried to record with the full band, it didn’t capture the same magic that the demos did. Apparently, there is a full electric version of Nebraska, but it won’t see the light of day¹.

I don’t really need to sing Nebraska’s praises. It’s been done so many times. I’ll simply say that I think that it’s become the Springsteen magnum opus, because the darkness that surges through the record has remained a feeling that people can latch onto. The grandiose desire to escape on Born to Run can eventually seem juvenile. Born in the U.S.A. has been misinterpreted so many times that it’s hard to not feel some awkwardness around it. Nebraska’s sense of disillusionment will always creep back in, as jobs are lost, relationships strained, and the darkness from the edge of town takes over.

While I’ve been a Bon Iver fan for much longer than a Springsteen fan, I’ve spent much more listening to Nebraska than For Emma. While Bon Iver soundtracked so much of my younger years, nothing feels better than blood on blood, and Nebraska’s pulverizing weight does consume me when I spend my time with the album. For Emma feels more escapist to me. When I hear the record, I can hear the cabin in the midst of winter. Though Vernon was clearly struggling when he made it, it’s easy for me to romanticize a wooded, Eau Claire winter, because it seems foreign to me. I have crept down dark roads in New Jersey, scared of getting pulled over by a state trooper, and it hits closer to home. Despite hearing the sadness in For Emma, there is still a quality to it that makes it feel almost fantastical to me. Still, it is just as much a classic.

If you are a person who is going through a transformative life depression, I ask you to not go to therapy. You do not need to be prescribed medication or tell a professional about your feelings. You need to go to the middle of nowhere and write and record an album. In the digital age, this can be incredibly simple:

1. Get an acoustic guitar.

2. Bring your laptop or phone (or a 4-track if you’re feeling daring).

3. Get into the woods.

4. Don’t come out until you’ve written a generation-defining record.

If you have a job that’ll let you work remotely, you probably don’t even need to be unemployed (though I imagine that it helps). If you really want to, you can probably use some basic recording software to add some other instruments (though it may hurt the overall barebones nature of the thing). I’m not telling you how to make art, but if you follow these tools, you have the keys to success.

Except you don’t. The final ingredient in the recipe is that you can’t intend to write the album. I’m sure Thoreau was very thoughtful about his process, but For Emma and Nebraska are both happy accidents (or depressing coincidences if you prefer). Vernon didn’t begin recording the shapes of For Emma until he was in the cabin for weeks. Springsteen thought he was demo-ing a proper E Street Band record. While many albums that I’ve loved have borne similarities (Stranger in the Alps, Pressure Machine, Sprained Ankle, folklore, Foxes in the Snow²), none capture the feeling truly. Those albums were intentional, and even though Springsteen’s influence can be heard, it can’t capture what either album did.

I’m sure that someone has gone through a breakup or faced a depression and considered renting a cabin and writing their version of For Emma. The reason we haven’t heard of them is the intentionality. The records need to come out of the need to work through some darkness, rather than trying to make the most of it.

If you are reading this, I don’t think you can go into the woods and write a masterpiece. You’ll be too conscience of the expectations to write an album on par with Springsteen or Bon Iver. Though you may not write the album yourself, consider helping an artist in your life. If you know a creative person, who is going through a dark time, consider chipping in for an Airbnb or lending them your cabin. Perhaps they’ll walk out from the brush with a song as good as “Creature Fear.”

1. I do think there are three possible times that we’ll hear it. First, it may coincide with the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, where Jeremy Allen White is playing Springsteen during the Nebraska period. Next, maybe it’ll be released for the album’s 50^th anniversary in 2032. Finally (and most likely), someone will finally put it out after Springsteen eventually passes.

2. None of these albums are necessarily trying to be For Emma or Nebraska, but the stripped down nature warrants the comparisons. I do feel like each album is fully realized in its own rite. I don’t think that Vernon was trying to write in conversation with Nebraska when he wrote For Emma either.